Basically: In some countries, the pledge is with the constitution or the people, but in others (like constitutional monarchies), its a pledge to the (constitutional) monarch and their successors.
What is your opinion on this loyalty pledge? Do you believe it’s a reasonable request?
(For context: My mother and older brother had to do the pledge to gain [US] citizenship so the idea of deportation isn’t looming over our heads. I didn’t have do it because I was under 18 and my mother’s citizenship status automatically carried over to me according to the law.)
I think the idea of national states is utterly silly and should be abolished. Just look at the maps and how many straight lines they have, there is nothing natural or normal about those artificial lines of most countries.
On top of it nationalists use national states, which contain highly diverse groups of people, to make them to go to war against their neighbors by telling them lies about how they all are some special group.
As an example, is there anything a Bavarian has more in common with a person from Schleswig-Holstein compared to his neighbor from Austria? It’s not culture, nor language, not even blood. It’s only artificial things like the football national team, laws, taxes, etc.
You’d need more war to solve that. In Europe, borders usually run along a natural defensible lines, like rivers and mountains.
Or battle lines: Belgium netherlands
Perhaps…
But like it or not, states are the current reality, because being stateless is really a bad idea. 🤷♂️
I keep thinking that, but then I think in a much more universal sense. Different countries allows different types of policies to be battle tested and we can find out which ones actually best.
I keep flipping between “conflict is fucking stupid we should be better than this by now” and “we need constant war with ourselves to keep improving for survival incase aliens.”