millenial ideas

     One of the millenial ideas popular now is that the world would be a better place without borders. These poor lines on the map are now blamed for starting wars, oppressing people, and worse. According to the new groovy, without borders we will all live in peace and brotherhood, with free cat food. This is very naive, and on more than one level. Borders are constructs in human minds, They don't "do" anything--as history, psychology, and economics don't "do" anything. Blaming them for human problems is silly.
     If we erased all the borders on the Earth, within a matter of days the people on one side of a river would want to talk to the people on the other side of the river about water usage, or something. Each would find a representative to talk to the people on the other side. And it would look very much as before--a "government", or something like it, formed because people found it useful and necessary.
     Making governments is a natural function of humankind.  It's one of the ways we try to get along with one another. Two people may make a deal--three or more form a government. The solution to corruption in government is not abolishing governments, but making better governments.
     The solution to arguing over borders is not abolishing borders, it is offering solutions to the problems that caused the argument--the problems that will not magically disappear if we erase the lines on a map.