Borders
A man gets tied up to the ground
He gives the world its saddest sound,
Its saddest sound.
—Paul Simon, “El Condor Pasa”
(written by Lancelot Finn, September 2003)
Introduction: Strange Entities
A border is a visible line on a map that creates an invisible line on the surface of the world. Indeed, in geometric terms, it is a plane that runs through the surface of the world, for it governs not only the land, but also airspace and underground mineral rights.
Some borders at least correspond with visible features of the landscape, such as rivers or mountain ranges. But there are thousands and thousands of miles of virgin steppe, jungle, or desert, where the eye can recognize no change or discontinuity, yet human laws insist that these blades of grass, these mosquito-laden waters, these sand formations, belong to one nation-state, those to another. In principle, these invisible lines are so precise that blades of grass, blowing in the wind, transgress international borders hundreds of thousands of times every day.
But the grass is free to do so. Wind and rain, birds and beasts may cross these lines at will. People, however, are forbidden to do so, unless they have the permission of the two governments concerned. Thus people contrive, through their own legal and cartographical ingenuity, to be, of all mobile objects, the least free.
Imagine an abstract nomad, who disdains the concept of a border. He seems a priori to take a more reasonable view of the matter. For thousands of years, pastoralists have wandered the steppes of central Asia, leading their herds to fresh pastures. Trading caravans, leading laden camels, have trod from Baghdad to Beijing and back. Gypsies have made their way all over Europe, living by their quick minds and quick fingers. First Greeks and Phoenicians, then Vikings and Norsemen, then British and Dutch have sailed the wide oceans, stopping freely at ports in every land. Such nomadic lives were dangerous, perhaps, but they were not forbidden. To settled peoples, home means a few fields or streets, this village or that neighborhood. To nomads, home is the great expanse of the desert, the steppe, the open sea, the great taiga or the wild mountains. Why, at this late date, should this homeland of the nomads be destroyed, partitioned, littered with invisible barriers? How can it be a crime to wander, to disregard a barrier of whose existence the senses give no evidence, which was determined in far-away capitals, to whose councils I was not privy, to whose decisions I gave no consent?
I stand upon the steppe. The grasses bend in the breeze. I feel the sun on my back. A hawk soars overhead. I walk a few paces. By the laws of men, I have entered a completely different country. I was in Mongolia, now I am in Russia. There is a different language spoken here, a different currency circulates. I have entered into a different social contract, and owe obedience, not to Ulan Bator, but to Moscow. I still see the hawk overhead, still feel the sun on my back, still the grass sways around my knees, yet my legal and moral obligations have magically changed; moreover, unless I have a visa, those few steps were a crime and made me an outlaw. Is not this bizarre, absurd, superstitious, irrational?
In an age in which the public sphere is highly de-sacralized, borders are almost unique in being held “sacred.” These strange entities are the skeleton of the world order, now more than ever before. They are the chief source of injustice in the world today.
Dear readers, this is an unfinished study of the meaning and role of borders, and I would appreciate your input. You may comment on this or read any or all of the other sections first. Leave comments on my blog at this post.
History: The Changing Meaning of Borders
Rome, China and the Tenacious Dream of World Empire
Nation-States and the Globalization of the Westphalian System
Whither Borders in an Age of Globalization and "Empire?"
A New Function: Borders as Membranes to Regulate Population Flows
The Political Economy of Immigration
Tocqueville's Democratic Wave: How Borders Aborted the Egalitarian Revolution