"Man Without a Country", Interesting article on identity politics

[martybegan]

An interesting read, starting with the events in Fergueson, and going into concepts of the definition of the westphalian nation state, US federalism, and identity politics.

Man Without a Country

In particular these sections are of interest to me:

History may be evolving away from the Westphalian State, with its unitary national culture, flags and traditions and moving towards affinity groups whose allegiance is primarily to themselves; which only form temporary alliances based on expedience in competition with other affinity groups.

The evidence is suggestive. Nobody is just an "American" any more. Anyone who insists on the plain identifier must be a secret bigot. You are a [modifier][-][American]. In fact, Forbes noted that "the number of Americans renouncing United States citizenship or terminating long-term residency is on a record pace." And why not? The unadorned term "American" is being drained of meaning; what value there is lies in the prefix, not in the suffix.

The Left for its part, has done its level best to multiply the hyphens while simultaneously trying to increase the size and power of the central state. They little realized or perhaps they realized all too well, that a program of cultural fragmentation combined with growing central power is the high road to dictatorship. You can have cultural diversity and a strong central government but not both -- not unless it's headed by a Sultan or an Emperor.

Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner notes that cultural diversity requires federalism. He argues that most of the problems in Washington are the result of tryng to combine fragmentation at the bottom with centralism at the top. Washington politics is gridlocked because governance from the center is impossible as the hyphens are multiplied indefinitely.

As a federalist, I have always been a proponent of local governance over federal, unless of course the federal government has been explicitly given the governance in question, or if the local government tries to infringe on an explicit right a person has as a US citizen.

 

[Ozone]

it might be antisemitism to say so, but... crashing the housing markets by means of a derivatives bubble is likely part of a plan. i mean, i wouldn't go so far as suggesting that book the protocols of zion is a true story, that the learned elders really aren't all that organized, it's just that loyalty to heaven supersedes most things. and it is written in books of prophecy. for example, the book of daniel or the book of the revelation, with the understanding that babylon is symbolic of civilization. the united states is expendable, no one was ever promised that the nation would last forever.