The implications of the internet upon the nation state are already being and have been realised and the cracks that they cause within the integrity of the concept can only grow deeper. There are obvious limits but these stand to be eroded rather than remain and are already of sparse importance. Quite simply the proliferation of free web browsers and various messenger programs have effectively doomed the fashion in which humans had previously confined themselves.
To understand how the exact nature of the nation must be considered: I have referred on this blog before to Benedict Anderson, author of Imagined Communities but his persuasive argument bears repetition here. Anderson argues that the nation is a largely a fantasy that was created primarily by the printing press. The existence of literature, varying from novels to newspapers, which addressed entire groups of people as one and used them effectively as mass characters {every phrase from “The Afghan people” to “The Sikh community” constitutes an instance of this} brought people into what they conceived of as a community much like the one which would exist in a town, despite for the surprisingly eluctable fact that that they are unlikely to meet any of those that they conceive themselves bonded to.
As the printing press enabled nationalism, then, so the internet enables internationalism. Whereas simply by merit of logistics such a philosophy proved vastly implausible courtesy of the technology available today I can switch between MSN Plus tabs and contact someone who lives in North London, on the other side of the city from me, at the same speed that I contact someone living in Australia, on the other side of the planet.
This inexplicably bizarre state of affairs is one which all engaged have become accustomed to to the extent that the action has reached a stage of normalcy and is not really worthy of commentary, not deemed remarkable at all. But such an act is truly unprecedented in human history, at least in terms of cost and convenience. To telephone another continent will invariably be a costly affair and one which will thus be distinguished from making a similar call to someone in Northumbria. Furthermore in order to undergo such an act you would, presumably, require somebody who you already knew who dwelled there, something which is unlikely to have occurred save for a prior meeting between the two of you and a degree of intimacy that you would covert further correspondence enough to waive internally the price of such contact.
Upon the internet things are somewhat different: you can meet those who live hundreds of thousands of miles away with ease in chat-rooms, forums or other places of virtual congress. Upon my own MSN list I have a Dane, Fin and Pole, three Canadians, five Australians, copious Americans, a Mexican and a South African, none of whom I have actually met. My AIM “Buddies” are all Americans I have not met save an equally unmet Netherlandian and a single wench from the Midlands, who I haven’t met either. I suspect that this is far from the most diverse assortment in existence. Why, I even lack any South Americans!
This is far from unusual and in fact seems to be something of the new norm. The possibilities for contact with the foreign is boundless, indeed no country has such a monopoly upon the web’s content that most of it is from their sources, making such interaction effectively inevitable. If not friendship then at least some degree of connection is experienced by all web users who do not confine themselves to the most narrow of areas.
The impact of this is likely to be the barriers that had previously restricted humanity into overly tidy boxes that they dared not depart from will be torn down. It is effectively impossible to maintain that your fellow man possesses certain characteristics that distinguish him from you in some severe way due to his place of origin when regular contact shows that he chats, nudges and LOLs just like you do.
The cause for this being such a success is simple: language. English has come to dominate the internet, often abandoned for considerable swathes but largely understood by all present. Far from the assumption of stilted and awkward phrases that one would intuitively expect from those speaking another mother tongue it is frequently found that those online, especially the ones that modestly apologise for its poor quality, discourse in a far higher standard of the English tongue than do most of those raised speaking it solely. The Dutch and Scandinavians seen especially adept, often using phrases far more eloquent than I could ever manage and embarrassing all us native English thoroughly by occasionally requiring us to enquire Dictionary.com.
The result of this is that the location of these formerly foreign people is simply that, where they are situated, not a vital component of their identity. The internet truly is capable of bringing together the globe. This is true of no piece of technology that has thus far been developed: televisions are controlled by the rich and only those with enough funding and authorisation can create and transmit footage. As aforementioned telephones require foreknowledge of who you intend to call. But through the web those endless leagues away can be met and interacted with eventually all the effort it takes you to message a family member in their bedroom.
The potential of this is boundless and demonstrated effectively earlier this month when Anonymous “Raids” were staged worldwide against the Church of Scientology. This group relied entirely upon internet communication and arranged to protest upon the same day and in a nearly identical fashion over the same issues and following the same cause. The V masks were worn by at least some in every location and all of them publicised the same website and told the same facts. All of this was filmed and photographed and then spread across the internet freely, for the perusal of all involved and any interested.
As striking as this was I find it unlikely that nothing similar shall ever happen again: humans are gregarious beings and previously had devised culture around the logistical difficulties presented to them by their borders, as well as the artificial ones imposed by those concerned with such affairs. But when groups such as 4 and 711Chan are openly tossing around self-declared memes that are followed by an international audience what restraint does local custom really pose? What thrives under such conditions is what is appealing, not what tradition dictates.
Perhaps too much emphasis can be placed upon those global gathering places that do exist: if Ebaum’s World and Gaia Online bring together the planet then what of it? There are ample users of the internet who do not frequent such electronic locations. Indeed neo-sectarianism is unquestionably in place as these latter two websites are openly and virulently despised by those who frequent the former. However, although websites such as Facebook and, to a lesser extent, MySpace tend to result in voluntary confinement to the geographic location in which you reside the likelihood of any internet user using all of their time here is low, indeed as are the odds of these two sites and those operating upon such a model remaining as dominant as they presently are. Otherwise, every source of hosting or searching accessible to the public are likely to result in results from other countries. The proliferation of blogs from a dazzlingly diverse array of cultures is likely to expand yet further, along with its impact.
The consequence of this is that chauvinism will become increasingly vulnerable to elimination through the destruction of the ignorance that supports it. It will remain possible to consider your own country’s achievements to be the greatest but to consider your nation’s people to be a separate kind of one to that found elsewhere will become a proposition rendered increasingly untenable, simply through confrontation to the indisputable nature of reality.
This is unlikely to be a swift process but I suspect that it may occur longer than people consider. The state is already suffering from the underwhelming of its authority through extra-national servers: Guido Fawkes hosts his site in America and resides officially in Ireland, rendering legal action nearly an impossibility and certainly an immensely convoluted process should anyone try to pursue it, while in Russia MP3 websites abound as a consequence of the lax laws present there courtesy of the “Shock Therapy” of unhindered, unhinged free market capitalism that was applied to it after the demise of the Soviet Union, with all other nations being able to access such portals and benefit as a consequence. The aforementioned Pirate’s Bay seems to be the Die Hard of websites: a thousand threats assail it constantly and yet it continues to move, refusing to roll over and die despite dozens of offensives that would have crippled the less tenacious.
These loop-holes are of less importance, though, than the way in which the planet’s inhabitants perceive themselves and those around them. It seems highly likely that more will come to the awkward yet glorious realisation that even those upon entirely the other side of this remarkable sphere of rock can be exactly the same as those standing right next to us, exactly the same as we are. Before this new dawn bigotry will wither and nationalism shall be bleached. As soon as it is over humanity will be something else entirely, all for the realisation that it is all much the same as itself.
