anotherlife
Gold Member
Nations aggressively assimilate independents within their borders every day. Even if the independents are more indigenous than the nation. They call them national minorities. This is a robbery ploy. But if nations are okay to assimilate people, then why are super structures like the EU not okay to assimilate people? I realize though that both the EU and the Soviet Union have coasted by fueling ultra nationalistic institutional hatred though.
As for your economy argument, I think it is a bigger problem. The character of a nation decides how rich they get, and that character is to be relative to other nations. Globalization of finances pulls nations into a last guy standing style attrition competition. If there is no balancing act between them, then eventually Germany only will be livable and the rest of Europe will starve. Then half of Germany will starve too, and the whole thing will shrink to be smaller and smaller, until the entire European continent will be worth nothing but one single gated community from which everything will be controlled. This is how your own hard work destroys you, in a roundabout fashion.
I didn’t say that assimilation is okay or is not okay. I said that the EU won’t be able to assimilate the nations. I can hardly imagine how say Germans will assimilate French or Spaniards or even some smaller nations in their own countries.
Frankly, I haven’t completely understood what you tried to say by this. I don’t understand why only Germany will be livable while the others not. But even if this will be the case and if the others will do nothing to improve their abilities, then it is okay. The strongest will win as it has always been in the history.
BTW, I have asked my relative about written by you concerning travels inside the Soviet Union. It was called nonsense.
I think too that the EU in its current form will not be able to assimilate the nation's. This would be necessary though to counter ultra nationalistic administrations.
Some nations are assimilative, some others aren't. For example Slavonic nations are assimilative, no trace of pre-Slavonic culture survives under them. The French are assimilative too. But the German are not, the Spanish are not, ....
I meant that globalization corners away assets. Like now most nation states have economic activities only in their capital city regions. The people move to the capital then. But money can move further and land in a nation elsewhere. In that case closed borders will prevent you from going after your money.
It is interesting why you consider the Germans as a non-assimilative nation.
About the capitals. It was quite common when the most prosperous and influential city became the capital of a certain country. And that is why the capitals still attract people and business activities. Though, it was not always the case. For example, Catalonia with its capital Barcelona is considered the most developed region in Spain; in Italy the northern provinces are more developed and richer that the other ones; in Germany the most powerful regions are situated in the western part. Also, similar examples can be found around the world.
No one says about closed borders. At least inside Europe. There should be borders, but they shouldn’t be closed.
I consider German non assimilative, because original German law declared that no matter where you are, you own tribal laws are applied to you, at any court. So, if you were a Roman, they applied Roman law on you, if you were Norse then Nordic law, if you were a Hun then Hunnic law, and so on, all in a German court. This is unimaginable in a modern nation state.
What kinds of borders do you envisage in Europe? The administrative language laws themselves create defacto borders that force ethnic conflicts along national borders, as is. How can a border be nondestructive if a different administrative language is used at its opposite side?
Because the people want was is not theirs, and when they get it they find it is not what they thought. Would you allow your neighbour to demolish you home so they could make their larger ? Without borders that is what will happen, and you will end up fighting
The ww1-2 piece treaties were created and upheld for the exact purpose that you are saying, which is like "to demolish your home so others can make theirs larger". It is a fact that this happened a lot less before ww1-2 because there were a lot less borders. So reality is the exact opposite of your logic. The problem is in the direction of more borders not less.