Fake Countries, Abstract Nations and Putin's acting with "Imputiny"

warning:  strong language and radical ideas.  Free speech, in other words.

Today's events drove me to write a rare blog post.  This is a protest against the war that started today, but it's also a protest against all wars, and a protest against the system which creates the conditions for war, and ultimately, against those who have told us for decades that this is the way it is, and this is the way it will always be.  I won't let today pass without saying NO to this war.  Stop it.  Stop it right now.

Vladimir Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine is a horrifying act of mass murder.  40 soldiers died in the first morning alone.  If any other man went out in the morning and killed 40 people, in any other place, time or context, it would be seen as an outrageous and horrifying crime.  This is definitely that.  And yet President Biden said "we will hold Russia accountable."  Why would we hold Russia accountable?  It is Putin who should be held accountable.  This is the act of one man, just as WW2 was.  One madman who decides the fate of millions.  How can we sustainably live in a world that allows this?  The point is, Russia didn't start the war - Putin did.  Russia is an abstraction.  A fake country, if you will.

Putin argues he is responding to the aggression of others, and therefore he is defending.  Nato has built missile bases in Poland and Romania.  Putin feels threatened.  But others argue none of that gives him the right to attack a weaker neighbour.

Putin called Ukraine a "fake country".  Just as Trump (who incidentally is cheering on the mass murderer today), often uses the word "fake".  As if these terrified, insecure, megalomaniac "strongmen" are the arbiters of what is real and what is fake.  Just because they say the words.

But what Putin (the master of propaganda) also knows deep down is that Russia is a fake country.  

Just as America is a fake country.  

And Britain.  And France.  And Germany.  And the rest of the 195 countries on the planet.

EVERY country is "fake".  

Why are they fake?

Because a country is just an idea.  It's an abstraction.  It something we all agree exists, and therefore it exists.  Sure, it's got a history.  Yes it's got borders (which infantile dictators like to expand when they can).  Yes people have died pouring their blood into the soil.  Yes it's got a flag we can all salute.

But in the end it's just a narrative, a story, a shared experience.  Oh yes and because people have built up armies and military histories and indoctrinated their people into loyalty and ensured they took loyalty oaths and all the rest, to agree with the fiction that the country is a real thing, when it's actually just an abstraction.  Most of these countries exist because they were taken in a land grab, and mass murder was committed to get their borders to this point.

The nation exists because we say so, and we're willing to commit mass murder and build up arsenals of weapons that can instantly obliterate all life on the surface of our planet, rendering billions of years of evolution moot, so that we can defend that flag, symbol of an abstract concept.  Sounds pretty suicidal when you think about it like that.  We're willing to wipe everything out, including ourselves, in the defense of an idea.  Very noble.  Or maybe just utterly... fucking... stupid.

Now, some countries and their leaders have, at times, behaved well, acted neighbourly, engaged in trade, commerce, tourism, been welcoming to visitors, etc.  Many ancient and unique cultures have emerged.  Nice art forms, music, food, healthy friendly rivalries like sports competitions etc... the good bits are pretty okay.  Even the by-products of some pretty evil empires have produced great art and culture.

But when you look at today's events, this is an example of what I was thinking in the early days of Trump's reign, when I wrote my album The Species That Knew Too Much, and particularly, when I wrote the song "Abstract Nation."  Part of my idea for this song, and the idea that a country is just an abstract fiction that we've all come to agree upon, came from Yuval Noah Harari's books "Sapiens" and "Homo Deus", the bits about how humans are able to agree upon certain fictions and powerful things happen as a result.

So what are some of the bad things this abstraction called the nation-state gives us?

• It gives a strongman like Putin an excuse to oppress his people with impunity.  ("imputiny"?)
• Nobody can say anything about it because after all "it's his sovereign right".  Sovereign states can do what they want and nobody is allowed to interfere with their "sovereignty" (which in many cases means the right to act like bullying assholes, setting up concentration and re-education camps, torturing, killing and disappearing people).
• When global problems occur (climate change, pandemics, asteroid strikes, whatever) the so-called "leaders" of these so-called "countries" are allowed to ignore the problem, bringing the human race to the point of being a very endangered species.
• It gives assholes the right to tax their people and then pocket the money.  They can let all their piggy friends belly up to the trough and they too can suck the people dry.
• The country can essentially set up a money-making scam issuing passports, visas, and all the rest, essentially prohibiting the ancient right of homo sapiens to walk freely upon the earth, setting up border checkpoints etc.
• Because everybody agrees on this abstraction of nations, and the 195 (today at least) abstract nations that exist, then we get the ultimate downside of this stupid system which is extremely dangerous to the future of the human race:  WAR.
• They can say things like "we feel threatened by that other fake country over there, so we're going to have a war to demilitarise them."
• The powerful people of the world can use their power to avoid taxation, keep the rest of us in the dark because we're so stupid as to believe this abstraction, whereas they just work the foreign exchange system to avoid taxation, enrich themselves and live in secure bunkers and desert islands etc.

The problem is, when this happens, inevitably we take sides.  Oh, he's a bad guy.  (which he is).  We can't let that happen.  (which we can't).  We've got to fight a war so we can get back to having peace.  And real people are getting killed, and the moral thing to do is to arm those people so they can fight back.  We must resist this evil asshole.

Except you're never going to have peace that way.  As long as there are nation-states there will be an endless supply of authoritarian assholes.

The only way would be to get rid of this stupid system.

And replace it with what, you say?  World government?

I don't know mate.  All I know is, this ain't working.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  How many times have we let assholes take over nation-states?  And how's that going?

And it's going to lead to human extinction.  Why?  Because right now we should be solving climate change, not fighting a war in Europe.

If that's what we want, then - like my album says - we think we're really smart, but we're actually really fucking dumb.  We are "the Species that Knew Too Much."  And I use the past tense because one day, real soon, that's what we're gonna be if we keep this up.

Meanwhile, we're stuck with these abstractions, and there is no choice but to accept our current shared hallucination that these countries actually exist.  That's not to say it's an ideal way to run the world when we stand on the brink of human extinction and Putin's being a petulant little prick who should be held individually accountable for this situation - don't try to hide behind your fake country with your fake flag.  You're just pissed off because your other fake country where you used to work as a KGB agent has gone the way of all fake countries - to the dustbin of history.  Which is where you're headed.

Standing tonight, in solidarity with the people of the abstract nation known as Ukraine, and against the fake leader of the fake country known as Russia.  We'll go down wavin' the flag.

Anyway here's my song.  Find it on Apple Music or Spotify.

Abstract Nation 

© 2018 David Barrows

Every nation is goin’ rogue

All the cool countries are doin’ it

So the planet is goin’ to the dogs

Rabid, and racing to ruin it

Won’t bow down to the E.U. or the U.N.

Won’t kow-tow to the I.C.C.

Are we a country of mice, or men?

Are you a friend, or an enemy?

Mrs. May said, “citizens of the world

Are citizens of nowhere”

But I daresay the nation-state

Is past its “sell-by” date

Every country is a failed state

A nation’s just a strongman’s toy boat

The battleship won’t turn

We’ll let the planet burn

Before admitting the obvious

The nation-state is not serving us

We may have riches, or we may wear rags

We’re all goin’ extinct, we’ll be wavin’ our flags

What has the nation-state

Done for my species lately?

We’re all in the same damn boat

But a busted boat… ain’t never gonna float

Ask not what your country can do for you

Ask what your country is doing to the planet

There ain’t no government

That’s really benevolent

They survive by being violent

So extinction is imminent

The system of nation-states

Only divides us, and propagates

Poverty, misery, war and hate

Extinction is our destination

But we’ll go down waving the flag,

Clinging to an abstract nation