Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too
Imagine all the people, living life in peace.
You may say Im a dreamer, but Im not the only one
And the world will live as one
(Imagine- John Lennon)
O come to think of it. Do we need to have all the 200 countries that we have in the world right now? Did we really have to memorise the names of their capitals in school. Or lets ask, what exactly is the need for the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland to be separate dominions. I’ve just done a wiki on it for you.
It seems that there were 5 countries, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the Faroe Islands, whose tumultuous evolution through the centuries, saw the formation and disbanding of several unions, which obviously called for wars, and deaths, finally ending up as five sovereign states, four of them now under another umbrella, the EU.
Which prompts one to ask, why? Why did they have to have a distinct name, be a country of its own, have a constitution to follow, of its own? Why did countries that had everything else in common, have different kings, or now, rulers. Have armies, have wars and weapons-when the only threat to their existence could come from themselves- just because they have distinct, though mutually intelligible, language, and a set of power crazy monarch’s?
When God created us ages ago, he gave us whatever we needed. Much more space than we could ever need, food to eat, water to quench our thirst, companions to have fun with, and brains, along with the essential brawns, to protect ourselves.
We went a step ahead. We used the eyes God gave us to check on our brother. And he seemed to be having more vegetables, more clean water, more companions and more space. And we started to become paranoid. We started to second guess his every motive.
We began to worry of having to be less than equals. So we took the offensive. We tried to bring him to the ground before he had the chance to make us bend. And we are playing the same game even now. Getting him before he gets us.
After the Second World War, the Americans, under President Eisenhower, developed a national policy known as ‘domino theory’, to counter the spread of communism during the cold war era. The domino effect indicates that some change, small in itself, will cause a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence, by analogy to a falling row of dominoes standing on end.
Going by the theory, any country was bound to be influenced by the happenings around it, and would try to replicate the neighbours achievements, because, power meant power, and having the power meant warning everyone else by displaying it, and telling your subjects to fear not.
So India tested the bomb, because, well, what else do you do with a scientific experiment, but see if it works. (Let’s not have another debate on its neccessity here) And Pakistan had to go nuclear. Was that the president’s personal agenda. No. It was for national pride. And remember, even they’re entitled to some of it.
North Korea couldn’t resist testing its weapons. Who would take being branded as the axis of evil lying down. So again, pride, national pride, takes precedence over priority needs like poverty and hunger. And more countries will follow. There’ll be wars, and more wars. Once the marbles start rolling, there’s no stopping it. More countries will join in. Because in a world infested with nuclear weapons, you cant afford to be non-aligned.
But where did it start. Where the monarch of one country decided that what he had was not enough and decided to annex its neighbour to its territory, and make its subjects follow a culture new to them. Did we hear any of his advisors ask, why bother. Well, WHY BOTHER?
What good to us is it if some one else, living in a land, separated from us by loads of brine or wasteland, lived as he pleased. Even worse, what good would it do to us if we subjected him to our control. No, we had reasons. Greedy reasons. Take the latest. Oil!
Do we need armies? Why did we have armies in the first place? Think about the millitants in Kashmir, or for that matter, any of the so called terrorists. Does it really matter who rules the Kashmiri’s. Does it matter who they pay their taxes to. After all, taxes are there to stay, and the rulers are deigned to be polliticians from time immemorable..
No, it doesn’t matter who rules us. It doesn’t even matter which national anthem we sing, or which flag we salute. We don’t need demarcations, period.
You may say Im a dreamer, But Im not the only one.
I dream of a world in which a national flag is much more an identity on a playground and not on our modern day battlefields.
Im sure Im not the only one
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