Saturday, April 3, 2010

Boundary Spanning

Acting on your best behavior
Turn your back on Mother Nature
Everybody wants to rule the world
--Tears for Fears

Some believe that we are all one people on the planet. However, since early days of civilization, societies have erected boundaries around their turf. These boundaries reflect differences not sameness. Today, we see this not only at the country level, but inside countries at state/province and even county level.

Because boundary drawing has such a long history, it seems plausible that staking off societal boundaries is part of the natural state of things. And indeed, if you take a step back and look down at the boundary structure, it certainly has the fractal look--i.e., similar patterns at macro (national) as well as micro (local) level--evident thruout nature.

What, then, drives the natural condition of boundary drawing?

One argument is that turf drawing is a natural defect of the human condition. We are inappropriately possessive, for example. Or, the boundaries help manage security (e.g., the Great Wall of China). However, we see the boundary drawing phenomenon even in communist countries where property rights are not respected, and among relatively secure countries where raising fortress-like security barriers, physical or otherwise, seems unnecessary.

Perhaps the answer lies more in economic motivation. We might draw boundaries to facilitate local trade. There may be some validity to this, but benefits from trade increase when geography broadens. Absent intervention, trade on a global level irrespective of country borders raises standard of living for all.

It seems, rather, that the primary driver behind border drawing is social. Folks who have similar belief systems with respect to, for example, religion, or the importance of individual liberty prefer to live close to each other. They erect laws based on their belief systems and expect those who live inside the borders to abide by them. They practice customs unique to their people.

The borders reflect a society's belief in their right to act independently for the happenings inside their borders. The borders reflect a claim on sovereignty.

Perhaps, then, human tendencies toward sovereign living space merely reflects a natural condition of social diversity.

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