Discussion about this post

User's avatar
John Carter's avatar

Much of the migrant/expat dichotomy can be understood through the lens of capital flows. Migrants are barbarians from third world countries flooding into highly capitalized states like vultures, with the intention of plundering their resources. Expats come from the civilized world, and seek out regions that possess a balance of low cost of living and high quality of life, in which they then proceed to spend money (which they earn by drawing a paycheck from their first world countries). The overall result is a flow of capital out of regions of high concentrations, towards regions of low concentrations.

On the identitarian question, we need to draw a sharp distinction between nation and state. It is only following Westphalia that the two have become conflated. That is clearly no longer viable, for the technological and political reasons you explained. The nations that survive will be those that learn how to live as networked, semi-nomadic diasporas - much as the Jews have done, or the Chinese with their global archipelago of Chinatowns.

Expand full comment
Daniel D's avatar

This is really excellent. We're heading for a world of economic zones presided over by government officials acting like hedge fund managers (on behalf of the bankster cartel that owns the hedge fund), only with no reason for anyone to be loyal to anything except their own self-interest (and certainly no reason to be loyal to the state or its occupation government). The image that comes to mind for me is that gigantic Costco in the movie Idiocracy, only it will be covering the surface of the entire world, with no reason to travel or migrate anywhere because everyplace will be as blighted and banal as everyplace else. Anything we can do to promote the local and the particular, above the supposedly global and universal, would be advisable.

Expand full comment
57 more comments...

No posts