Look into the future, all I can see...the next generation looking back with pity on me.

Alright, today (well yesterday for all you people that live like a normal human being) is the 4th of July. The celebration of our country's birthday. There is a lot of YEAH AMERICA! shitting around this time of year, and it got me thinking about nations, nationality, and the world as a whole.

Obviously, back when you were lucky if you went 20 miles away from where you were born in your lifetime, the commradery necessitated by locality was important. There was a lot of scary shit out there, and it all wanted to eat your food and rape your family.
This concept gradually expanded to the scale of a nation, loosely bound by common language and common foes. Them and Us. You are like me, and we must protect what we have from those who are different than us because, well, how could I trust some dirty fuck who doesn't speak my language, much less love my god?

But today, at least in the US, I don't feel like an American. I don't really agree with 95% of the things my government does, I don't agree with most of the opinions of the majority of my fellow citzens, and I sure as fuck don't feel like I want to. I'm embarassed to be labeled an "American."
I feel more like a tenant, who must pay a monthly rent to live and drive and breathe in the borders of the complex. The US government is just a landlord that, for some reason, is allowed to take my money away, whether I want what their selling or not, and I get something in return, though I don't really get a say in what it is (voting is for suckers, don't think for a second your voice counts, but that's another rant) and they take a nother taste if I buy something I do want, and then they take a cut of my shit when I die.

To make a long story short, the world is so interconnected, finacially as well as culturally, it seems so stupid to base your most highly regarded affiliations on something so trivial as geographic similarities. The Nation-State paradigm is foolish, and more to the point, dangerous.

Terrorists have learned this, or perhaps they were the first to figure it out a long time ago. Who do retaliate against, when violence is perpetrated by a few, acting not out of patriotism, but in their own self interest? You can't go to war with a country just because a few of it "citizens" blew up some of your shit. Why hold entire populations of people responsible for the work of a few, just 'cause they live in the same town? Why think they think the same way?

But we have, and I say "we" because my taxes paid for those tanks, and bombs, and bullets. My money, though pratically stolen from me, paid for these things, and I AM responsible and there is nothing I can do about it. All because I was born here instead of Japan.

end transmission.