In fact if you leave out some sort of regional belonging, there is precious little room IMHO for democracy, no room for self-determination and certainly no room for community in any meaningful shape. You start from claiming your democratic stake in the affairs of you neighborhood and move to grander things from there, I think. The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake
that's a real good and tough point: does society/community depend first of all on geography?
i am not sure.
what i was trying to convey -- and the issues are definitely intertwined -- was very well expressed by Todd in an interview afew translated:
Emmanuel Todd : The protectionist revolution, current affairs debates : Le Point - Elisabeth Lévy (translated by afew)
... implemented at a collective supranational level, free from any ethnic or State founding myth, would demonstrate that have moved up to a higher state of human consciousness and of historical development.
i don't know if i buy (or even understand) the concept of "cooperative protectionism" he was describing in this passage, but replace that with "society/community in general", and it describes very well what i was trying to get at. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
