Dr Jay's Musings

                   Nation-states blossomed on the world political landscape mostly between the 17th and 20th centuries. Kings and emperors were deposed and replaced by representative governments with executive officers selected, in theory, by a democratic process. Nations took shape as a means of defining territorial boundaries, regulating internal affairs including economies, laws, taxation, and so forth. They also assumed responsibility for international relations. For the most part, but not universally, nation-states act autonomously creating the geopolitical mosaic landscape of the modern world. I propose here that nation-states have outlived their usefulness to humanity and we need to begin working to make them history.             This controversial condemnation of our country-system of organization runs against nationalist ideas, the perversion of patriotic fervor, and concepts of Ame...

       Liberté, égalité, fraternité , the motto used to call the French people to fight for freedom and a new and enlightened government in France in 1790 resonates still today in the hearts of people, if not in the practice of their nations. Emanuel Macron's victory in the French election against Marine Le Pen with a margin of 58.5% to her 41.5%, that is  18,779,641 to 13,297,760 votes, was  a wide margin, but one so close that it should send shivers down your spine.       Why should this scare you?  Le Pen's self-identification in a 2017 BBC interview was, " The policies that I represent are the policies represented by Trump and Putin ". She embraces policies of nationalism, exclusion of immigrant populations, self-interest over the communal good of her nation, censorship of speech, and internationalism. I will be blogging later about the importance of an internationalist goal for the future, but in simplest terms, we cannot ...