#131

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

W

hy the nation state is needed beyond the world cup might be difficult to fathom with all the fanaticism spilling into other geopolitical regions, especially now that everyone that wanted a football kit has one, and has joined the spectacle.

Someone always devises a new way to tax the people, and a national team jersey, at $120 CDN, should pay for quite a bit beyond the cost of staging the global football tournament.

Nation states are mandatory for a reason, as much as the yellow and red penalty cards and the ability, in response, to strike a goal from a free kick spot. Even football needs a set of rules, a referee, and a system of penalties to deter lawlessness.

Friendly play might begin in a world without borders, but eventually the natural rules of fairness will be broken, and freedom from government will give way to lawlessness, and inevitably, to a type of chaos of which everyone should be fearful. The world knows this result better than the outcome of the world cup of football because humanity has come from that place, time and time again.

World Cup football provides the perfect example of processing personalities within a larger system of cooperation. Organization makes everything happen, otherwise everything and everyone would just be an immutable blob of chaos.

Distinct personal identities linked to larger national identities creates a rich diversity within humanity that can be tapped to solve problems and develop a vibrant life moving forward in the world outside of sports.

A polyglot can contribute only so much before nations run a net deficit of imagination and ideas.

The world is ultimately a better place with distinct national identities, although ones that are not engineered to clash so much in war as in sport.

The nation state is not a test kitchen, mind you, but a place where ideas and innovation organically develop independent of other ideas and innovation in other nations – and in this way humanity will move forward quicker and safer.

Legal identities must be in place to limit the risk of harm, perhaps not so much by design as an inevitable outcome.

The prohibition on further proliferation of nuclear weapons, for example, can only be accomplished with the existence of an overlord presence, such as the United Nations or a Superpower, such as the United States, willing to marshal the world behind morally defensible stances.

For 250 years, whether recognized or not, liked or disliked, the United States of America has been one of the sheriffs of global affairs, initially being content to create a homeland for itself, but inevitably joining the global revolution against monarchical rule in favor of constitutional democracies.

The monarchical order, interlinked through hereditary title and marriage, was overthrown in succession, over one hundred years, across Europe and America.

And the Empires the monarchical families had plundered the world with, like the Vikings and the Romans before them, would collapse as a result of the extreme destruction and violence of he Great War and World War II. The cost of war, present and future, would inevitably bankrupt the homeland.

Global sporting events bring people together and humanize political and cultural differences. Since people can at least agree on how to play football, people may also agree about democracy as the best form of governance that humanity has been able to conceptualize.

When assessing humanity as a singular unit, the virtues must be weighed against the common sins. Sports bridles these good and bad qualities to effect a result – at the very least for a game to be played.

The greatest game may still be in dispute, but the existence of play that brings individual nation states together with a common understanding about how to play, creates a lot of hope for civilization.

The absence of Russia from the world cup, and from other peaceful global events such as the Olympics, is a definitive signal that warring nations are no longer welcome within the global community. Humanity has moved on from war, but unfortunately people continue to struggle with those most violent inclinations as a method of resolving disputes and answering long standing questions.

The world does not need a mosh pit with a lot of clicking soldiers within the spectacle of global sports.

On the pitch of a football game, one team may be better than another team, and individuals within one team may be more talented than other individuals, but at some point at least, all the players are footballers, and then perhaps, also human beings happy not to be dug into the soil of Flanders Field.