: Borders of what, exactly?
Thinking about open borders again, lads……..
I just read Bret Devereaux’s “My country isn’t a nation” (followed a link from somewhere). It’s the sort of essay that leaves you with the satisfying and perplexing feeling of having learned something incredibly obvious. Like, duh, of course, how did I not notice that before?
The point is exactly what’s in the title: That the USA is many things, but it is not a nation. Nation is a specific word with a specific definition, and it just doesn’t apply here:
The United States is thus quite an oddity (though again, not necessarily unique, just odd). It is not a nation-state, nor is it a multi-national state, but rather a de-nationalized state. It is the un-nation. This is not to say America lacks a culture (as is sometimes oddly asserted); indeed, it has quite a few with wonderful regional variations which unfortunately include South Carolinian mustard-based BBQ but fortunately also include all of the other forms of BBQ. And of course the mass-marketing of culture and particularly of education has created a shared ‘national’ literary, entertainment and consumer culture, though in many cases these are part of an emerging globalized consumer culture.
Lol. But it’s true! Even if you get a big boner on the 4th of July and get excited about things like the Constitution and the Boston Freedom Trail, you are compelled to admit that these artifacts are not the expression of an American “nation,” but rather a broad civic identity that has to do with—something other than birthright.
We are doing a different thing here, an experiment based on the idea that all people are created equal. What happens when you start from that assumption and then try to bring people together over it, instead of starting with an imagined national identity (we all look this way and eat this food and speak this language) and praying that that secures peace? The USA happens, apparently!
Now that I have read this essay, I will wince a little bit harder when I hear the word “homeland.”