While on holiday, I read Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. It reminded me how much our current world feels shaped by trends that are very recent, like social media and even the car — or very overrated, like the internet, if we compare it to the more revolutionary invention of the wheel, which enabled people to travel much further distances and therefore spread their culture, or the invention of the printed press, which enabled a much greater number of people to educated themselves. It surprised me how nations in their current configuration are very young, not just places like Kosovo, Israel, or even Italy & Germany, but even Spain and Russia.
The irony of nationalists
Silk Roads also made me think of the contradictions of people who are nostalgic about their empires but against people migrating to their country. While imperialists migrated to other countries and extracted others’ natural resources, migrants coming to our countries today often exploit their skills.
It made me think how ironic it is that people in the West complain about people in other ancient empires like Turkey, Iran, or China becoming even more dominant and authoritarian while wanting to recover their ancient empires, whether the UK, France, or Spain. It also reminded me how the actions of the empires of my two nationalities — England & France — sowed the seeds of quasi-permanent unrest, in how it created new states in the Middle East, drawing up borders which didn’t reflect the cultural dynamics of the time, but instead reflected negotiations between colonial powers.
It was a revelation to me how intrinsic the act of enslaving was to building empires, from the UK, France, and Spanish empires to the Persian, Arab, and proto-Russian empires. Did you know that the word “slave” derives from Slav, which meant slaves of the Russian people, and then ending up being all people within a particular region of Eastern Europe? What’s truly ironic, though, is how vital migration is to growing new cultures and powers. Empires like the Ottoman Empire succeeded when they mixed cultures and created cohesion between them, and they failed when they overreached without creating cohesion. This realisation made me appreciate the enriching role of migration in our world’s cultural tapestry.
What does this mean now?
As we witness a growing need for people and countries to work together, there’s also a looming risk of protectionism and isolationism. Individuals and governments, in their quest to protect themselves, might inadvertently isolate themselves from others who could contribute positively. This realisation should raise concerns and make us more aware of global dynamics.
We could see all-powerful states overseeing economies dominated even more thoroughly by the few corporate giants (think Amazon and Facebook) that can monetise the crisis for further shareholder gain. People may prefer to be constantly tracked by Chinese-style digital surveillance in exchange for being able to wander the streets. People may look to countries where the government is better able to enforce physical distancing or to countries where people expect better quality public services. However, people may also trust more supply chains that they can control and that are closer to home, be it medicine, PPE, or food, rather than our current globalised supply chain.
