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2 days agoIn America, nation-state is different than a state. I have a tinge of a libertarian streak about me so take that as you will. Suppositionally, the idea that states have a lot of autonomy against the federal state is actually a good thing. It means that the more liberal of the states have more control of their destiny.
If you had asked me this 20 years ago I would have said the opposite, but personally, now, I’m very thankful that I don’t live in a place where a state does not have a check and balance against the federation.
Sure, happens all the time. Tell me NYC and Albany are aligned. Tell me the people of Austin align with greater Texas. Tell me the people on Staten Island align with the rest of NYC or that the goals of Manhattan and Brooklyn are aligned.
They are bizarre things, our ape brains. We align well in small 100+ tribes…the higher the order of magnitude gets, the fewer common threads there are to keep us all together. But tribes do need safety and security, and tribes can come together to realize economies of scale, so that’s really where nation-states can thrive.