Category: Civilization, History, and Anthropology

THE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE IS A WORLD NORM – WE AREN’T SPECIAL
Just as northern italy is middle class germanic and southern italy is underclass greek, just as canada is a soft war between the underclass catholic french of quebec, and the middle class protestant english in the rest of the country, or in the UK the scotts in the north, and the english in the south, the USA is, at least on the north south divide, a soft war between the middle class culture of the english in the north and working class culture of the scotts irish in the south, with the germans more often than not split between them.

The nine (or eleven) nations of north america is about right. But more than that, we are now in a position where the basic political structures necessary for urban centers vs suburban and rural territories is such that we require city states to divorce from territorial states in addition to dividing into sub-nations.

So while there was value in a central government in order to conquer the territory and drive out the europeans so that we would be militarily safe (one of the smart moves in human history) and this is the purpose of empires, at this point there is far less value in the central government for other than it’s original intent as defense, trade policy, dispute resolution between states. So just as say, in china and russia, south america, and the middle east, people want smaller governments with shorter power distance, that more directly address their wants and needs – americans want local control of social policy even if strategic and military policy (as well as emergency services) are centralized. After all, the sole purpose of Republican (rule of law) government is the insurer of last resort.

Cheers

Reply addressees: @Flavus59