Reply #28: So the natural tendency of centralized states to further centralize will stop? [View All]

"They set unified standards in order to transcend cultural and state barriers and bolster trade, transfer of people and goods"

Why would that not continue? How can you go that far, and then stop? Maybe you can for a while, but doesn't the transcending of barriers to bolster and movement of commodities require further conglomeration?

I'm not saying it's going to happen tomorrow. It could be another generation or two. But when you look around the world, is there any "there" anymore anywhere? The world is a conglomeration. Everything is increasingly the same(not completely, but more and more each day), because we're transcending those barriers to the free flow of the various cogs in the world.

Obviously I'm looking at the EU from a conglomerated point of view in the US. Does the EU want to be a counter-balance to American power? Chinese power? Russian power? If it does, I don't see any way to do that other than to fully unify. Even if the EU doesn't want to have more influence in the world, just the transcending of barriers would cause the individual cultures, heritages, etc, of Europe to become more of a monoculture. I don't know that people get to pick the good parts, and throw all the bad parts away. If you want those barriers to disappear, you have to have a loss of something.

Again, not tomorrow, or next week, or 5 years from now, but slowly over time.