I don’t get it. I understand that we have borders as a way to have different sets of laws and separate different governments from each other. But why are people so obsessed with making the borders keep people out, or restrict what can come in, tax goods moving between them, etc.
Borders aren’t real. At least not physically. If I cross state lines I don’t see a literal giant black line dividing, say, North Dakota from South Dakota. In fact I wouldn’t know there was a difference if not for the sign saying “Welcome to South Dakota”
For some reason humans can’t conceive of a world where we all live on the same chunk of land and we somehow have to separate each other.
Shouldn’t humans have a basic right to live where they have the best chance of survival? It seems like borders are just an excuse to exploit people along arbitrary lines by making up more rules to control humans who were born in the “wrong place”.
I must be missing something. All of this effort around nations and patriotism over “I live here so I’m better than you” or “those humans suck because they live on THAT chunk of land instead of this one”… we’re all the same species and yet we collectively seek out ways to divide ourselves and place people far away “beneath” us. All for some lines on a map.
Thanks for reading my Monday rant.
For nation building creating borders and myths about a coherent one nation within clear borders has been essential for states of all kinds during modernization. In Finland for example the area that is now called Finland was a loosely defined area of land with various peoples, cultures and languages. To start hegemonizing all these into some seemingly homogenous whole that can be rallied to fight wars or propagandized againts some dangerous Others, you need to draw a border thay defines the Other and those who belong.
Similar borders exist between most things, marginalized groups within a culture exist behind an internal border, but there is always a privileged center that is defined by what is outside it.
This is imo one reason why conservatives so hate postmodern open definitions of things, when you cannot draw a clear line in the sand between your (typically supremacist) side of a border and borders become loosely defined, the systems themselves reveal their constructed nature.
Capitalism itself could not function in its neoliberal global form without borders and they are essential to imperialism. Not to mention how they are used in dividing the working class and pitting workers against each other.