Thursday, November 18, 2010

Borders

I wish I had this video on hand when I was explaining to my students why borders are meaningless artificial constructs:



If you've seen the video already, sorry for getting it in front of you again. I just want to keep it where I'm sure not to lose it for the next time I will be teaching this course.

3 comments:

Pagan Topologist said...

But, disturbingly, many men and somewhat fewer women died to bring about almost every one of those border changes. It makes the futility of war evident, but probably does nothing to make it less likely.

Is dying for the sole purpose of helping other people move some national borders around perhaps the greatest of all possible tragedies?

Clarissa said...

These people die because they do get something in return (at least, since the XVIII century). Something that to them is priceless: a sense of collective identification.

Clarissa said...

Sorry, david, whose comment I accidentally deleted. The video has indeed been removed by its makers in the few hours since I posted it. Now I feel like it's my fault that it has been banned.