Nations: Contents

"When humanity has truly grown up, it will look back on the division of the world into states, and the restriction of the right of humans to travel, live, and work where they wish, as a kind of world apartheid."

The quote above is taken from the essay Imagine... posted in the blog. Everything in this nations bit is really an extension of this argument: for politics of internationalism, or (perhaps more accurately) anti-nationalism.

"Cxiu homo
estas nacio"The Republic of Mania

Mania is the world's smallest nation, of which I am the only citizen. It has its roots in my childhood, when my Spanish family considered me thoroughly Anglicised, but my British friends considered me Spanish. When asked, I would give me nationality as 'foreigner', and even doodled a 'Foreigners' Passport' issued by the state of 'Somewhere Else' in the back of a school book. Over the years, 'Somewhere Else' would develop into Mania, with its motto "cxiu homo estas nacio". To find out what this means, you are warmly invited to visit.

Pro Bono PublicoThe Ministry of Undisclosable Purpose

I am also a citizen of Ladonia, the nation founded by artist Lars Vilks. Having created the sculptures he titled Nimis and Arx on what was then the Swedish coast, he was then ordered to take them down by the local authority. A long legal battle culminated in Lars declaring the home of the statues to be the independent state of Ladonia in 1996. Since then, Ladonia thousands of people have become Ladonian citizens, and the nation is ruled by a cabinet of about thirty ministers with titles like Minister of Gravity, Minister of Art and Jump, and Minister of Broken Hearts. I am proud to serve as Minster of Undisclosable Purpose, which does what needs to be done.

une homom,
une lingo,
sedu ne iso...lingow

Like nations, languages unite 'peoples' to divide people. A rationally designed universal second language is our next step towards unity, and therefore individuality. lingow is absolutely not it: for Bob's sake, don't actually learn it. It's just something I came up with while exploring the subject. If you enjoy a certain kind of puzzle, you may enjoy lingow too. And if you do, you may also enjoy learning Esperanto. Esperanto may also not be this future language: but it connects a community from all nations who have each decided they'd like to speak to people from all nations. Ultimately, any language should be judged on what one might learn from its speakers: on such grounds, it is hard to think of a richer choice.