So did you hear about the woman who was standing next to President Obama at the voting poll today,  trying to vote, and was humiliated by her loser of a boyfriend?

“Don’t touch my girlfriend,” the freak told Obama.

“This is a brother who just made a fool out of himself,” Obama commented, looking understandably annoyed.

“I cannot believe this is happening, ” the woman said.

It is really sad to make the news as the girlfriend of a sexist freakazoid.

I hope she dumps him.

Who are all those scary people who followed Monica Lewinsky on Twitter?

The world is a scary,  confusing place at times.

Bauman says that the “arousal and beefing – up of emotions” needed to maintain patriotic attachment to a nation has been outsourced to private entities. Patriotism is, in this sense, not that different from all of the other functions that the state has been outsourcing with what I could describe as near desperation: incarceration, education,  war – waging,  welfare, etc.

I’m very interested in the outsourcing of patriotism as a new practice. Does anybody have examples?

Thinkers on both ends of the political spectrum agree that the nation-state is dying. For the first time in my memory,  Marxists and anti – Marxists speak in the same voice on this crucial matter. (In the spirit of full disclosure,  I haven’t read Fukuyama ‘ s new book yet, so I can’t say what position he takes. I’ve read his followers, though,  and they agree the nation-state is dead.)

The difference between the two sides is in how they see the post – national future. One group believes that the state will manage to preserve itself by dramatically reducing its functions in the areas where we expect it to act and take control while proving its relevance in combating global threats, such as climate change,  international terrorism,  cyber wars, etc. The other group believes that the state will fail at this task and eventually (not tomorrow or the day after but eventually) humanity will have to move towards a shared global governance. Obviously,  this is an enormous shift in human governance that will be accompanied by massive loss of lives, dramatic and often terrifying transformations,  etc.

Can you guess which scenario comes from which of the groups on the political spectrum?