Why there's no libertarian nation on Earth yet

[gotlucky]

A nation is a group of people. A nation state is what the world is mostly made up of now. For example, you can have the German nation without having a unified nation state (west vs east). Also, ancient Greece was filled with city states but it was a Greek nation.

Depends on how you use the word.

[ThatOldGuy]

@bloomj31

If people are truly libertarian they don’t want a nation. Right?

Depends.

If you consider Minarchists as “true libertarians,” then they would most likely be in favor of nations.

If you consider anarchist as “true libertarians,” then they would most likely see a nation as arbitrary and antithetical to their beliefs.

[gotlucky]

From wiktionary:

nation (plural nations)

1. A group of people sharing aspects of language, culture and/or ethnicity.

   The Roma are a nation without a country.

2. A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture

   The Kurdish people constitute a nation in the Middle East

3. (law) (international law) A sovereign state.

   Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.

4. (chiefly historical) an association of students based on their birthplace or ethnicity ^syn.

   Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, nations are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.

​

It just depends how you are using the term. If you are using it as a synonym for nation state, or just state, then obviously no anarchist can support the idea of a nation. But the idea of a people unified by culture and language, among other things, that idea is compatible with anarchism.

[bloomj31]

If a nation is just a group of people unified by culture and language (philosophy?) then a libertarian nation already exists although in a disconnected, disparate form geographically speaking.

[ThatOldGuy]

@gotlucky

If you are using it as a synonym for nation state, or just state[…]

Meh, I thought that was implied : /

[gotlucky]

Meh, I thought that was implied : /

I didn’t read the OP, but I’m sure that nation = state was what the definition that people were using, but I was just throwing it out there that the idea of a nation =/= state is in fact valid. In theory, America (or any country) could become a libertarian nation without having some kind of statist system.

[ThatOldGuy]

@gotlucky

In theory, America (or any country) could become a libertarian nation without having some kind of statist system.

We can hope.