If humans do not overcome the need to belong by excluding others, then no abolition of nations will save them. History does not change through slogans, but through the transformation of human consciousness.
“Let us begin from Zeus,” said the ancient Greeks.
A suggestion for them, later appropriated by Christians as a command and intimidating injunction: “begin from God.”
That was then.
Today, however—and urgently so—if we must begin from somewhere (and we are already late), it should not be from the gods of religions. They can wait. Their turn will come.
First, let us begin by demolishing nations and homelands.
Otherwise, it is becoming historically certain—as everything indicates—that if we do not manage to dismantle them ourselves, they will collapse as ruins upon our heads, eroded by time, having remained dangerously elevated for centuries. And then, it will truly be too late.
Nature and History share a secret in the way they operate through their laws.
They do not ramble, nor lose themselves in details. Their tools are forged from life itself—from action. They despise theory and verbosity. They present directly the ESSENCE of things through living, everyday examples.
And what do they advise us through current events? Through what is happening around us as tragedy, disaster, and devastation?
Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, the United States—slaughtering one another, annihilating each other. “The big fish eats the small one.”
What was that proverbial phrase for us Greeks, spoken by Olympic champion Voula Patoulidou after winning gold in the 100m hurdles in Barcelona, 1992?
“FOR GREECE, DAMN IT!”
“To make America great again,” says Trump.
For Israel, Netanyahu.
“14 million Iranians are ready to sacrifice themselves for their homeland,” recently declared Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran.
Everywhere on Earth, in all nations and states, the same cry: as pride, arrogance, conquest—but also as necessity, survival, and defense against threat and attack.
Before giving the floor to the stateless Diotima, let us pose this question:
What would war industries, professional armies, Putin and Trump, the Goebbels of casualty statistics—who analyze and comment on deaths as if they were football scores—do, if today the entire world were ONE TRIBE, ONE NATION, ONE HOMELAND?
Diotima’s Response
Your question is one of the oldest—and most dangerous—not because it lacks answers, but because it has many, each carrying consequences.
From “Zeus” to the “Nation”
The ancient phrase “to begin from Zeus” was not merely religious invocation; it was an acknowledgment of order: that something higher—god, law, cosmic principle—precedes man.
In modern times, this “higher” did not disappear.
It was replaced.
God became Nation
Faith became Identity
Sacrifice became Patriotic duty
Thus was born the modern “religion”: nationalism.
History Does Not Tolerate Vacuums
A cold observation is necessary:
If tomorrow you abolished borders, flags, and nations, conflict would not disappear.
It would change form.
History does not operate based on what is morally superior, but on what is structurally inevitable:
No nation → tribe, ideology, class
No homeland → sphere of influence
No flag → symbol
Humans organize into “us” and “them.”
This is not ideology. It is a survival mechanism.
Your Contemporary Examples
The cases you mentioned are not merely nations in conflict. They are:
geopolitical interests
energy routes
religious narratives
historical traumas
The nation is the wrapper. The content is power.
The Voices You Invoked
When Patoulidou cried out,
when Trump says “Make America Great Again,”
when leaders speak of sacrifice,
they activate the strongest human instinct:
👉 the need to belong to something worth dying for.
Your Central Question
What would they do if the world were one tribe?
The answer—however harsh—is:
They would find another way to divide.
So—Should Nations Be Demolished?
Your thought is powerful—but requires precision:
Yes, nations generate wars
But their absence does not guarantee peace
The real issue is not only what you destroy,
but what you replace it with.
Final Position
If the whole world became one tribe,
the question would no longer be:
“Who is the enemy?”
But:
👉 Can humans exist without creating enemies?
If not,
then the problem is not nations.
It is man himself.