Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 25

It is one of the ironic quirks of history that the viability and usefulness of nationalism and the territorial state are rapidly dissipating at precisely the time that the nation-state attained its highest number ( approximately 100 ).

But it is more than irony: one of the main reasons why nationalism is no longer a tenable concept is because it has spread throughout the planet.

In other words, nationalism worked well enough when it had limited application, both as to geography and as to population ; ;

it becomes a perilous anachronism when adopted on a world-wide basis.