The existence of tension. An empire

[samiaseo222]

The nation is firstly the people and the land, the empire is firstly the idea and the power. National hierachies seek their legitimacy from the people, from the earth; imperial hierachies seek their legitimacy from the gods, from the sky. Nationalism is a female political principle, imperialism a masculine one. The empire is in a permanent state of confrontation with what it does not control. The very word frontier suggests the front line, a confrontation with the yet unconquered world.

However well maintained a peace, aspires to total control and the existence of the frontier reminds it that total control is lacking. An empire is propelled by the job function email list dynamics of growth. When an empire stops growing it is in danger of decaying, for to make good its claim to be universal it must continue to press forward until the whole known world and even more than the known world falls under its dominion. Therefore the boundaries of an empire are not fixed as a nation's are.

They may be defined by geography in fact but never in theory: an ocean or a mountain range does not define the limits of an empire, it imposes them. Mosche Dayan's comment that Israel's frontier is wherever her power reaches was an exemplary affirmation of imperialist power. Empires have in common with clans and mafias a reluctance to admit to a natural order above their own power, with the difference that the power which an empire seeks is total, exclusive. A sect may grow within an empire and finally transform it into something new but in its own image. Christendom is a case in point. The internationalist "West" which is replacing the European nations is another.