Communities and nation states
A thought experiment: What if nation states remembered that they are simply very big communities?
Over the summer break, as we’ve been taking long train journeys through Europe, I’ve had plenty of time to look out of the window and play with silly thought experiments. Here is one of them.
As I was reading the news and baffling about recent political news in the countries we were traveling through, I asked myself: what if I look at nation states as very big, intricately developed communities? In this highly simplified perspective, nation states are basically a group of people coming together around a shared identity, committed to each other’s wellbeing.
I found this comparison helpful because it reminded me of what matters in the bigger context of politics.
For example: Conflict and tensions in communities and nation states are normal. They happen all the time. Yet the focus in nation states is often punitive. Locking people away. Removing people from society. Shaming them. Disempowering them. Seen through the community lens, that obviously misses the point. The intention should be on restoring the torn fabric of the group and strengthening the long-term wellbeing of the community. The community needs restorative justice, reconciliation, healing.
Another example: The welcoming of new arrivals. From our community work we have learned how crucially important an intentional welcoming and onboarding is of new members. The first interactions matter so much. Yet my own experiences moving to new countries have almost always been purely bureaucratic, legalistic and more often than not deeply dehumanized. What would we gain if we welcomed immigrants, refugees and visitors with intentional care? (Scott Holzman did an awesome project along these lines, The Welcoming Party, “an experiment in helping new residents quickly make meaningful connections in their new communities.”)
Of course, nation states operate at a very different scale than most communities do and there are plenty of reasons why the above examples don’t acknowledge their true complexities. But the point of the thought experiment is simple: Nation states get carried away from the beautiful essence of what they could be about: a group of people coming together to make life better for each other. Plus, as Sam Rye reminded during a recent conversation: in the spirit of liberal politics and human-centered design, many bureaucracies treat citizens as “users”, consumers, which is very different from a sovereign community co-creator.
The opposite can be true as well: communities learning from the solidarity infrastructure of nation states. I often marvel what becomes possible when a group pools resources, like healthcare, a social safety net, a universal basic income. What would it mean to scale these ideas down to the community level?
How does this resonate with you?
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