I've been doing a lot of thinking about nationalism lately, wondering why it develops in certain countries quicker than others for example. The Basques in Spain, The Quebecois in Canada, Any area of the world, really. So it got me to mulling over whether or not every 'nation' (defined in nationalistic terms) really NEEDS it's own state...Aren't there enough states in the world already?

Should we let the Quebecs of the world go off and become their own countries? What do you think 'Oh The Humanities' - feel free to riff on this topic and include any other feelings you have regarding nationalism.

I think people prefer to have their governments reflect their interests. Provided nationalism doesn't get too extreme (think pre-WWI and pre-WWII Germany) to the point where it becomes imperialism, it helps keeps governments on a scale comprehensible to their citizens. A politician in DC barely knows what's best for me. I can't imagine they'd be anywhere close to effective or just at representing a village in China too.

Plus nations are much better off when they're founded on common principles.

Look at how fucked Africa and the middle east are today. It's not because brown people are retarded, like racists like to say, but it's because artificial borders created by foreign powers by things like the Berlin Conference and the Sykes-Picot accord put states arbitrarily around different peoples.
If the borders took into account the ethinc/linguistic/religious groups instead of random geography, they would not be in such a mess as they are now. It'd be like if somebody re-drew the US to include Mexico. We'd be poor and fighting eachother nonstop and our entire infrastructure would be divided by language.

I think the basques should have their own country; they really seem like an autonomous culture. That's all they want really, a state for themselves, and they already speak their own language and have their own traditions. Why not grant them their independence, it'll stop the violence and there's no real cost to spain.

I'm not sure about Quebec. I don't know enough about the issue to decide whether Canada should split up or not.

Way to sidestep the mods LOL.

I've never understood how someone can find pride into being born into a totally random geographical area. I mean you didn't earn your nationality at all, it was totally by chance you were born where you were, and then a lot of these binge-drinking nationalists I see around me find some kind of default pride. And yet if you were born somewhere else more likely than not you would just slap another flag over this default and self-proclaimed "patriotism"

You can be proud in your country's achievements, but that's a different thing altogether. Flag-wavers and slogan swallowers are strange people indeed.

Again, do your own homework.