Please observe that the countries under attack right now – Ukraine and Israel – are very different except for one thing. They both came to nationhood late and with great difficulty and as a result are intensely attached to it. These are countries whose citizens are more prepared to die for their flag than pretty much anybody else. And they are both attacked specifically because they dared to seek nationhood. It’s their existence as nations that their enemies want to eliminate.
The reason why we see these eruptions of violence in different places is that the nation-state model is cracking up and all sorts of noxious fumes are coming out of the cracks.
Clarissa's Blog 
I don’t know if he’s right, but what this guy is suggesting about the ISR situation is compatible with what you’re saying here.
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“what this guy is suggesting about the ISR situation”
I dunno… I kind of tuned out when he started blaming Biden and Blinken… the US is not some all-powerful octopus (pace Greta).
My sort of long-running hypothesis: Israel only really functions well with some constant level of threat, longer periods without outside threats and the various factions/demographic groups/etc start squabbling and make the country vulnerable. It is what it is…
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Yes, I also don’t understand why it’s necessary to see what the Soviet propaganda called “the long arm of Washington” in everything. People can mess up completely on their own, without any aid from Biden or Trump.
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“the nation-state model is cracking up”
The nation-state is being dismantled deliberately, and not by happenstance, now that globalised elites are richer and more powerful than many a nation-state.
Also, you can only have a viable nation-state insofar as its population is willingly kept together by some kind of homogenising force, whether it be language, history, creed, traditions or, as in the case of states like the US or France, a community of intents, the desire to be part of a shared dream (the American dream, liberté egalité fraternité etc etc).
Now that globalisation and the technological revolution – which require permanent disruption to established ways of life – have subverted all and any nation-building mythical narratives in most countries, people are reverting to their tribal identities, or else they are being subsumed into imperialistic modes of governance. And the more’s the pity, as the nation-state has proved, historically, to be the surest way to the creation of stable societies finely balancing the need for social solidarity with the necessary protection of individuals’ rights.
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I think the biggest misconception is the idea that the global elite are a tiny group of oligarchs, when really it is the upper middle class, and the most powerful people are the ones they entrust to manage their life savings.
https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter
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We are all neck-deep in neoliberal mentality. We should all take a long, hard look on how we are actively neoliberalizing ourselves and the world around us. Nobody is a completely immune, very special cookie.
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Sure, but being a victim of neoliberal mentality isn’t as bad as being a victim of nationalist mentality if you don’t happen to be a member of the dominant group.
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For years, I’ve had people here on the blog telling me that the nation-state is what causes wars and once it’s gone there will be no more wars. George Soros invested tons of money into destroying the nation-state model because if there are no more nations, there won’t be another Holocaust.
I’d really love to hear what these people have to say now. As Soros looks at the mass murder of Jews by the stateless, borderless Hamas, has he changed his mind?
These people. These stupid, stupid, deeply dumb people.
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In SA, Hobson claimed that capitalism was the cause of wars during the Boer War and once socialism was established, there would be no more wars. This doesn’t seem to have happened, but the socialists still believe.
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Liked this photo:
https://zakdegrassi.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341d46b053ef01b8d06bdcef970c-320wi
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Their youngness is also part of why many Americans feel a connection to them, though not the only reason. Each one also has something deeply striking to Americans in their national stories.
Ukraine used to be part of Russia’s empire, but now considers itself an independent nation. Russia doesn’t like that, and even comes up with reasons why they are Russia, ex. “people speak Russian! There are some loyalists who want to be Russian!” Any argument you could make against Ukraine nationhood would also apply to America in 1776. If anything, America was on shakier ground. Siding with Ukraine is not just nice, but existential, in an ideological sense. The parallels on this were clear to me from the start. I would imagine many pro-Russia right wingers are also weirdos who think the American Revolution was wrong.
Similarly, the argument against Israel is “there were other native peoples here first who you displaced, they have right of return.” In America, we also drove people off the land who were there first. And Israelis can at least argue their ancestors lived there at one time; Americans can’t. If Israelis need to go back to…wherever (it’s never clear where they’re supposed to go, to their deaths I suppose), Americans should all get on ships back to England, Africa, etc. There is nary a contingent of right wingers that gets weepy about this stuff, part of why the right is more uniformly pro-Israel than pro-Ukraine.
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This is very well put. There is a significant segment of the Right (and a much larger chunk of the Left) that simply doesn’t like America. And this is starting to impact young people in a negative way.
For example, I have for years started my talk on Ukrainian independence by saying that for me it was like being there on July 4, 1776. And normally people understand that I’m saying it was a great experience. But now I see in the young listeners a sense of confusion. They don’t know how to react. The reaction to the words “American independence” and “the founding of America” is not overwhelmingly positive. This is very dangerous because if Americans don’t believe in America, it won’t exist.
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In SA, the backlash against the backlash has reached the point where supporting the original Dutch settler has become cool and countercultural.
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A serious question I saw on lj today – nobody answered there, but may be here somebody heard something:
// Yesterday Biden spoke with Netanyahu. He suggested: let you, the United States, [clean up our crap] take over the management of the Gaza Strip! Blinken was clear in his opposition. [el: I couldn’t find info confirming it]
What plans for the post-war sector do pro-Palestinian organizations offer? After all, in Israel we were unable to come up with any plans, judging by the proposal to America “take the sector, you are big and can handle it!” //
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If someone is unsure how Israel let this attack happen, here are 2 interviews with an old Israeli general who had been warning about it for years:
Генерал Брик пошел на столь откровенное интервью после того, как отчаялся убедить руководителей Израиля заняться всерьез устранением системных проблем в армии. «В организационной и командной культуре ЦАХАЛа произошел очень серьезный сбой. Это — тяжелая болезнь, которая порождает неудачи» — убеждал он в 2019-м. «Это может уничтожить Израиль, как ядерная бомба» — комментировал он новый отчет государственного контролера в 2022-м. От Брика отмахивались, как от назойливой мухи. Никто все эти годы не хотел его слушать.
Между тем, его рассказ о том, насколько запущена была граница, которую он инспектировал, ужасает. “Я пришел на один такой укрепленный пункт, поговорил с солдатами. Они сидят внутри блоков и смотрят через свои смартфоны, потому что у них нет систем ночного видения, в 50 метрах от забора! И они берут эти смартфоны в патрулирование, хотя каждый аппарат – точка, позволяющая врагу тебя идентифицировать все это время!”
Он предупреждал, что может случиться в поселках близ границы. Но никто не хотел его слушать
https://detaly.co.il/on-preduprezhdal-chto-mozhet-sluchivshayasya-v-poselkah-bliz-granitsy-no-nikto-ne-hotel-ego-slushat/
Читайте также: «Армия погрязла в высокомерии и коррупции — и вот результат»
https://detaly.co.il/eto-rezultat-armii-kotoraya-pogryazla-v-vysokomerii-i-korruptsii/
На фото: генерал-майор в отставке Ицхак Брик. Фото: Томер Аппельбаум
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Even if Poland were as awash with guns as the United States, there still would not be the same volume of mass shootings as there is in the US. This is not because of the moral superiority of Poles, or the depravity of Americans, but because Poland is a nation-state. Most people in Poland live there because they are Polish and there is a generally agreed idea of what “Polishness” is: there is a clear sense of “us” and “not us”.
By contrast, America is a propositional state. People live there because it offers a better deal. People move to America because that is where the goodies are. Anyone can become American, so long as he is prepared to accept the deal that America offers: work your a** off and a plethora of opportunities are yours for the taking.
This is why in the American mindset a person’s most useful possession is his car. If TSHTF, he can move to somewhere better. A European’s dearest possession is his home. If TSHTF, he goes home and holes up there until it blows over.
Globalism by the planetary elites aims to destroy the feeling of knowing who you are vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Leftist Wokism is doing to America what Soros-inspired agents – politicians, academics and all Liberals in the broadest sense of the term – are trying to effect through the strong arm of the European Union.
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