In the face of the rise of identity patriotism in the current political debate, some truths must be highlighted to put an end to the intellectual deceit of certain politicians who hold citizens hostage by exploiting their ignorance.
“The extent of ignorance is undoubtedly far greater than the level of knowledge,” said the scholar.
This is not a good reason to take advantage and invent stories that have no real foundation.
The state, as it is conceived today, only appeared in the 19th century. Asserting that it has always existed in one form or another is merely an attempt to legitimize it through myth.
The Greek polis or medieval empires do not meet all the criteria to be classified as a state: a decision-making center possessing both means of coercion and subjects who identify with a community, all within a defined territory.
The great Greco-Macedonian empire of the second century BCE did not rule over communities linked by mutual solidarity or even by a perception of a common destiny. Its subjects did not feel part of the same political entity.
The Roman Republic and later the empire, which dominated the ancient Mediterranean world, central Europe, and the British Isles, were always inclusive of the conquered populations: the definition “Civis romanus sum” applied to any citizen subject to the “pax romana,” but each territory retained its practices, customs, and even its gods. Some emperors even came from the provinces.
In the Middle Ages, norms were the domain of Christendom or the Holy Empire. Police force was exercised within very local feudal relationships. The pope and the emperor could then have very broad dominion without actually governing anyone. Their subjects, moreover, had little need for governance.
Nine out of ten people were peasants who had to cultivate the land or starve, thus they self-managed. The government intervened to take its share, ensure minimal justice, and guarantee peace.
For centuries, the primary role of rulers was to fight to retain these territories or acquire others.
Louis XIV thus had half a million soldiers engaged across Europe, but only 2,000 troops to maintain order in his own kingdom.
All calls to the Fatherland and patriotism are the result, or rather the worm, of propaganda without historical links, propagated for purely electoral purposes, and are merely traps for simple minds, mere fool’s traps.
