I fell asleep to the monotonous, but engaging drone of Eugen Weber, preaching of the final days of The Holy Roman Empire on PBS’ The Western Tradition. I awoke to the sounds of the same man – but preaching a whole new doctrine.

More later

Update: Argh, how embarrassing. I had a whole argument formulated last night, which I can’t recall this morning. *blush*

It basically followed this line. He proclaims the legitimacy of the European nation-state model because we’ve come to rely upon national governments for “all the services they provide.” But, in his section on the 16th and 17th century, he argues that the European nation-states were formed almost exclusively for the express purpose of more effectively conducting war.

Indeed, a strong argument can be made that the majority of the troubles facing the world today are the aftermath of centuries under the stewardship of war-mongering imperialistic European nations.

I see the day coming, not likely in our lifetimes, but perhaps our children’s, where mankind is, by and large, no longer at war. And people compete with each other in a truly free and global marketplace, not the field of battle. When that day comes, I predict that the great nations of the world, and their governments, will become obsolete, and slowly fade into just another chapter in the annals of human history.

Anyway, that wasn’t bad for something off-the-cuff. 🙂