Transitions

       There is an idea arising naturally in the mind, that the world we are born into is the world as it has always been, and yet the moment we are born to is always a moment of transition. The world that was, and will never return, becomes a world that will be, but has yet to arrive. We accept the world we mature in as typical; we view what came before us as being antiquated and inconsequential in relation to where we are and where we desire to go. As new events arise and new concepts overtake those that were current when we were younger, we also quickly incorporate these into our concept of what is normal. It becomes bizarre to us to understand that many of the aspects of our current world are new; they are less usual than we assume when we view the entirety of human history, and not as permanent as we may believe.  The modern world in which we live is in a state of transition, perhaps the greatest and most rapid transition humanity has experienced since the adoption of agriculture. 

       For more than a thousand years human technological and social development remained fairly constant in its progression, nearly 500 years ago this began to change with a frightening acceleration. Each century brought an even more rapid pace of development in every area of human interest.  New areas of study have been born as the range of human knowledge has been expanded by new discoveries. Advancements and new concepts have been seen in an array of disciplines including those of politics and of nations.  There has been development to the concepts of the individual citizen and the citizen’s place within a broad society.

       Our present concepts of citizenship and of nations are not just new; they are still in a state of transformation. It has only taken a few centuries for the transition of the average human being from subjugated serf, under the direct rule of a hereditary feudal lord, to citizen in reasonable possession of self-determination, with the right to help direct the future of his nation by electing his leaders.  The modern nation as we understand it, with the rights of citizens that we recognize today, is really less than 200 years old.  Presently, the full rights of citizens and full self-determination are still in the process of being disseminated to all people within our societies.  History shows us that our true state of being is one of constant change. It becomes strange when people take the present moment and hold it up as a static reality that always has been or always will be; oddly, others look to a moment in the past, as opposed to the present, and point to it as the moment when the world was normal and good.

       What the word nation means, to be a good citizen of a nation, or love for your nation, are all concepts which are still developing. A nation and society with a completed development will have a complete and static list of all the rights and obligations of its citizens; no nation has such a list as all are constantly making new laws, giving new rights, and revoking old rights. All nations are constantly in a state of change at all times. All nations are a work in progress. What it means to be a citizen of any nation is also a concept that remains incomplete.

        It is reasonable to believe that this is the true cause of conflict over such issues; we are in a debate as to what these things mean exactly because they are incomplete ideas. At present, no argument is being made to definitively show what it means to be a good citizen, to love one’s nation, or even what the true nature of a nation is.  When people insist that they have reached such a conclusion, they can only do this by deliberately ignoring the lessons of history; refusing to accept change as a general law of all human life; and by failing to realize that whatever we have made, will be just as easily unmade or turned completely on its head.  In contrast, if we are honest with ourselves, we will see that no nation is eternal, or sacred, or indestructible. No position on citizenship or loving one’s nation is eternal, sacred, or indestructible. The only value, meaning, and importance in any of these issues is like life itself, those which we give them in this one moment, in whatever way we choose.