Borders, laws, and the nation-state itself emerged to solve this problem: to establish stability and security in a world where might no longer had to make right.
And yet, though he was a fellow traveler, if not an outright commie, Woody Guthrie put down his guitar and put on the uniform of the U.S. Merchant Marine in 1943 at age 33, where he was exposed to real danger on the high seas in service of his country. THAT is the difference between someone like Woody Guthrie and today’s American Left; he understood the stakes. He was neither a cynic nor a nihilist. Guthrie knew that people who hated their own country would never be trusted by everyone else to fix what was wrong with it
I liked the slogan back when it was simply, "no one is illegal." When "on stolen land" was added, it all the sudden became awkward, because no one wants to be the one to say "well actually all land is stolen, no patch of land on earth is occupied by descendants of the first people to live there, if humans do anything consistently across time it's stealing land from others," and then you start to doubt that no one is illegal. But there is multiple levels to "no one is illegal." One, it evokes natural rights, rights we are born with and not granted us by the State. Freedom of movement is a natural right, but when this right conflicts with law, the State overpowers the natural right. Maybe good, maybe bad, it depends. Borders may be necessary fictions, but they are fictions. In the presence or absence of government, our natural rights are there. If I woke up tomorrow as a stateless paperless shoeless man in El Salvador, and I see my best chance at survival is to walk north and work in the U.S., I am engaged in that same ingrained human behavior to find better land, but I am not a colonizer, I am an archetype, the Man on the Road (the black monk, the wandering Jew...) And when I am stopped by the border patrol, something real becomes a fiction, the fiction wins, and I mostly agree with your reasons why open borders is unrealistic, but at the same time, isn't that too bad, doesn't that mean we have work to do, so that the State law can coincide with a human law such as, "I am going to keep walking until I find something better." So, no, we can't just erase the borders. But we should aim towards the erasibility of borders.
I am one of those "no borders, no nation state" people but I'm definitely not under any illusion that this would create a "might makes right" situation. I'm fine with that... but it's going to require some mechanism to prevent people from teaming up to become warlords/members of a warlord organization. I like the idea of an army of AI robot enforcers ensuring no two human beings every collaborate. That makes everything fair.
And yet, though he was a fellow traveler, if not an outright commie, Woody Guthrie put down his guitar and put on the uniform of the U.S. Merchant Marine in 1943 at age 33, where he was exposed to real danger on the high seas in service of his country. THAT is the difference between someone like Woody Guthrie and today’s American Left; he understood the stakes. He was neither a cynic nor a nihilist. Guthrie knew that people who hated their own country would never be trusted by everyone else to fix what was wrong with it
I liked the slogan back when it was simply, "no one is illegal." When "on stolen land" was added, it all the sudden became awkward, because no one wants to be the one to say "well actually all land is stolen, no patch of land on earth is occupied by descendants of the first people to live there, if humans do anything consistently across time it's stealing land from others," and then you start to doubt that no one is illegal. But there is multiple levels to "no one is illegal." One, it evokes natural rights, rights we are born with and not granted us by the State. Freedom of movement is a natural right, but when this right conflicts with law, the State overpowers the natural right. Maybe good, maybe bad, it depends. Borders may be necessary fictions, but they are fictions. In the presence or absence of government, our natural rights are there. If I woke up tomorrow as a stateless paperless shoeless man in El Salvador, and I see my best chance at survival is to walk north and work in the U.S., I am engaged in that same ingrained human behavior to find better land, but I am not a colonizer, I am an archetype, the Man on the Road (the black monk, the wandering Jew...) And when I am stopped by the border patrol, something real becomes a fiction, the fiction wins, and I mostly agree with your reasons why open borders is unrealistic, but at the same time, isn't that too bad, doesn't that mean we have work to do, so that the State law can coincide with a human law such as, "I am going to keep walking until I find something better." So, no, we can't just erase the borders. But we should aim towards the erasibility of borders.
I am one of those "no borders, no nation state" people but I'm definitely not under any illusion that this would create a "might makes right" situation. I'm fine with that... but it's going to require some mechanism to prevent people from teaming up to become warlords/members of a warlord organization. I like the idea of an army of AI robot enforcers ensuring no two human beings every collaborate. That makes everything fair.
And yes, I'm serious... and yes I'm sorta crazy.
As a first generation immigrant, I am in 1000% agreement with the OP. Will restack