The national state is a really recent development in humanity's history.The United States of America were born in 1776.Brazil as a republic in 1822.Italy, many times thought as one of democracy's precursors, only in the 19th century. But for some reason the national state now stirs passions, with people stating they would die for them, politicians trying to stop globalization from turning it in a old fashioned concept ( which someday will happen) and so on.The national state somehow menaged to achieve a santified status.But its days are numbered.The end of the national state is a play that will be played in 5 acts:
1) Internet, globalization and information
No wonder politicians usually dislike the internet.Increasingly people read the news from sources thousands of miles away, they marry people who grew up speaking different languages, they do business with different time zones and so on.The triumph of the internet ( that frees the flow of information) and of globalization ( that frees the flow of money, people and companies) is a clear statement that the nation state had its time and place but is already agonizing and soon will be dead.We will not mourne for this old fashioned concept that in retrospect will have last less than the roman empire.
2) Libertarism
Increasingly people realize that it is not up to the state to dictate rules, social norms, to decide how should people behave, which substances they should take, how should they do business and so on.Ron Paul's sucesss in the US is just an early warning.We will not see libertarism taking over the planet during our lifetimes-a human lifetime is too short-but the same way that abolitionists before us we know that it is a matter of time-the march of history is on our side.Increasingly people see that policiticians are not the most capable, enlightned beings, on the contrary, they are the laggards of humanity.
3) Bitcoin
Human ingenuity is endless and finally one of the basic monopolities of the state was challenged.Bitcoin is here to stay and the days of the monopoly of government's fiat money are numbered.Long life to freee competition.
4) 3D printing
Another old government monopoly-deciding which goods can enter or leave a country is now also being challenged by technology.And what the internet did to free information from government hands 20 years ago, 3d printing will do to free the circulation of goods in the 21st century
5) Seasteading and autodetermination
More people now live in a differente country than the one where they were born than ever before and this trend will continue.People will increasingly vote with their feet-once again, long live free competition.
Politicians, obviously, hate that.They like to call the ones who decided that they would be better somewhere else of traitors-just look at the stupid reaction that happened in the us congress when Eduardo Saverin just decided he no longer wanted to be a US citizen.
Sad news for politicans: more and more americans and more and more people all over the world will have the means and will to move for good.And trying to stop that will only make the US or any place else the morally eqquivalent of Cuba or North Korea-a prison, because that's the name we give to a place where people cant leave even if they want to.
So a toast to self determination.No more prisions in the people.People should be free to decide the country or countries they want to be citizens of.
