Is the Nation-State a Relic of the NEW Dark Ages?
Two technologists argue that Web3 will allow new forms of organization to supplant traditional governments
Two technologists argue that Web3 will allow new forms of organization to supplant traditional governments
“The real problem of humanity,” the biologist E.O. Wilson once said, is that “we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.”
In their new book, Farewell to Westphalia, Jarrad Hope and Peter Ludlow argue that such technology is precisely what can take our institutions out of the medieval doldrums.
The authors premise the book around the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, a set of treaties that ended Europe’s 30 Years’ War and established state sovereignty as the principle for international relations. They argue that while this new order was effective at toppling monarchies, religious despots, and other so-called medieval institutions, the new nation-states haven’t been perfect either. At worst, they further inflamed tribal tensions by drawing arbitrary lines around them. At best, they produced mediocre governance. The authors use government-issued currency as an example, noting how nations have destroyed theirs by overprinting rather than resorting to fiscal discipline. Other nation-state problems include high taxes, censorship, political oppression, and the fact that some of them still invade each other, violating the spirit of Westphalia.
Nation-states are “technologies that are nearly 380 years old,” the authors write, and should no more be honored than we would blindly follow centuries-old medical advice.
Nation-states are also, they argue…