There are many ways in which the freedoms that we have taken for granted are being taken away from us. One of the most egregious is the way in which the rise of globalism has led to the ongoing erosion of national sovereignty.

Does this matter? Are nations really necessary in an increasingly globalized economy? Have they had their day? Should they be allowed to go the way of the dinosaurs?

I would answer such questions by drawing an analogy with the importance of law, as defended by Thomas More in Robert Bolt’s play, A Man for All Seasons:

And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned around on you—where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man’s laws, not God’s—and if you cut them down… d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.

What has any of this to do with the existence of nations and their political sovereignty?

The point is that nations serve the same function as laws. If we do away with all laws, we will not have freedom, as the anarchists believe, but tyranny. In the absence of law, the strongest devour the weak. Similarly, if we do away with all nations, or erode their sovereign right to self-determination, we will not have an international community of world citizens, as the globalists believe (or say that they believe), but a globalist tyranny in which the most powerful corporations, financial institutions, and political empires have free rein and free reign.

What sort of political freedom will be left to the ordinary man on the street when all government and all power are centralized in global bodies? What voice will he have? Who will hear it?

Changing Thomas More’s words, when the last national government is down, and the Devil, a.k.a. Big Brother, turns around on you—where will you hide, the nations all being flat? This world’s planted thick with nations from east to west, and if you cut them down… d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?

The global corporations and global financial institutions want a level playing field, without the irritating obstacles that nations present to them, with their irritating laws. It’s in their interests that national sovereignty should be eroded. This is why the globalists support tyrannical political empires, such as the European Union, which erode the sovereignty of their member states. It’s much easier for the globalists to deal with relatively few multinational empires than to deal with a multitude of individual nations. The nations have to be sacrificed on the altar of Mammon so that Mammon can have its will. Small nations must be crushed and so must the small people living in them who cherish their local freedom and culture.

In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four the world has been divided into three monstrous empires, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Each is a tyranny in which nations have ceased to exist and the individual has been reduced to a powerless and alienated figure bereft of all freedom. This is the fate that awaits us all if we allow the globalists to destroy national freedom in the name of globalization.

Republished with gracious permission from Intellectual Takeout (May 2016).

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