Why Do We Need Nations?

Our languages create them

At a time when nations are at bloody war, it’s appropriate to ask why we have separate nations at all. Each of us is just an individual human animal with no inherent national identity.

It’s when we talk to each other that the problem arises. Our languages demand that we name our experiences as entities in discrete categories that create sharp distinctions between our experiences. There’s “me” versus “you”, “male” versus “female”, “red” versus “blue”, and on and on. That’s what gives us the ability to communicate rapidly and, often, effectively. But it also causes difficulty when things are not so “black” and “white”.

We even name our languages discretely that way. I speak “English” and you may speak “French”. But my “English” is not the same as the Queen’s “English”. I may also speak a little “French” and you may speak a little “English”, and both our “English”(es) and our “French”(es) may share some common words.

When we human animals cooperate in groups, we also like to give our groups names, so we can talk about them. We have “families” and “occupations” and “companies” and “cities” and “countries” with various discrete names like “Mason” and “Smith” and “Ford” and “Washington” and “London” and “Russia” and “Ukraine”.

Groups of cooperating human animals also like to make rules for how their members should behave within the group. Within a group we describe and communicate those rules in our discrete languages. In some of our groups we call them “laws”.

Individuals within a group can come into conflict when some individuals disobey the rules of behavior of the group. And, sadly, some groups have rules of behavior that promote conflict between individuals in the group.

Groups with different rules of behavior can come into conflict, as groups, when individuals from overlapping groups violate some of those rules. And, sadly, some groups have rules of behavior that promote conflict with other groups.

Nations are just big groups with different laws and different names.

That is why, dear children, we sometimes fight, and even kill each other, over nations. (Are we still too young to learn that and try to fix that problem?)

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