Definition of a Nation

There is a common misconception among the people of this place and time that I wish to correct. Many people in this day and age seem to believe that a nation is comprised solely of a stretch of land between the impenetrable barrier of intangible geographic boundaries. This is not the case; a nation is not the soil on which it rests, nor is a nation its government, its army, its constitution, or its prevailing political ideology.1

No, none of these things as they are, alone or combined, can coalesce to form that vital, grounding concept that is so basic to our individual human identity. These combine to form the physical body of a nation, but it does not breathe, its heart does not move, and it accomplishes nothing and eventually perishes without the essential component of soul. This soul cannot be measured by mere numbers, not in terms of population, per-capita economic this or that, wealth, or any humanly employable method of statistics. The soul of a nation exists within, and only within, the will of its people.2

In the presence or lack of physical space and recognizable government, a nation may or may not exist. A nation requires no dimension to thrive, and this can be seen in the historical reality of surviving Native American nations in the United States despite physical transplantation thousands of miles from their traditional home. (The South of this country, and Texas, seem to have also retained the impression of separate and autonomous statehood despite the contrary assertions of historical truth.) This can be seen in the survival of the nation of Israel for centuries in the hearts of its populace despite removal from it for such a long interval of time. This can be seen in the struggle, also, of the Palestinians against this other nation that claims its geographic slot; both groups retain their community, their unity, and their struggle over what one can easily see is much more than a simple matter of territory.3

Physical presence, indeed, seems the least important factor dictating whether a country is or is not a true nation, one with evidence of culture, community, and soul. That is the essential nature of a nation; these elements form bonds between men, and they do not answer to imposed boundaries that divide the Earth into puzzle pieces. Citizens of a country foreign to that of their origin by birth may dwell within the confines of this hypothetical nation for decades, with or without being an actual member of its population.4

The true spirit of a nation resides within its people, dictated and bound by the will of its population. If any government does not serve the needs of the nation, if any government oppresses or wrongs a segment of its population, if any government takes action without the consent of the people, it must be necessarily altered or abolished or it will die off. The nation, the people once under this government, will remain despite, perhaps under a different name or in a different place.5

A nation is only as good as the individual who populates it; if one man among ten million is corrupt, the nation of all those millions is also corrupt as long as they abide the presence of that disease among themselves. While it is true that the ideology and action of a nation does not necessarily reflect the opinions and behavior of every inhabitant, it does reflect upon each and every one of them, and any man who would allow such a thing in his community has no community, in reality, to provide him support in times of crisis or the thousand other functions community exists to serve.6

The nation is formed when, united by common cause, economy, culture, ethnicity, opinion, or threat, any group of men create a society to encompass all aspects of their existence, all dealings of their person, and all impulses of their heart and mind. Many revolutionaries have died for the cause of their ideal nation, an entity which, sometimes, the majority of the population of their geographic space does not even belong to but in the fantasy of the martyr.7

I herein propose that the reader might, as I do, take to be their nation not the country of their birth or inhabitance, but the whole of the Earth. All human societies affect one another and a challenge to one is a challenge to all. The presence of suffering anywhere on this sphere is the presence of suffering in one's own world, death in any nation death in one's own, and injustice for just one man in this universe injustice for all. In robbing one man, we steal only from ourselves; if the army of one's country should kill a soul for any reason, we kill only part of our own human capacity. Ignorance is not innocence of the atrocities mankind is heir to. This is a plea, yes, one that can be heeded or ignored, probably with no visible global impact either way. The change this may effect will be visible only in one's own particular quality and condition of life. But, to the individual, the individual life is all that can be controlled, and all that, in the end, matters.8

Donne wrote it before me and he wrote it with more ability than I will ever possess, and I close with his words:9

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.  If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."10