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Doctors,
Engineers, Journalists, etc., Without Borders
DIGG THIS
Doctors without
borders. Journalists without borders. Educators without borders.
Librarians without borders. Rivers without borders. Potters without
borders. Hydrogeologists without borders. Facilitators without borders.
Builders without borders. Life without borders. Students without
borders. Veterinarians without borders. Friends without borders.
MBAs without borders. Words without borders. Dogs without borders
(see
here). Mexicans without borders. Slavery without borders. Dumping
without borders (see
here).
These are
only some of the quickly burgeoning groups that share the
same last (two) name(s), "without borders."
What is
going on here? What accounts for this new "without borders"
initiative? What do all these groups have in common? Do they resemble
each other in any way apart from choice of appellation? And, where
are the "libertarians without borders?"
At first
glance, these groups are as dissimilar as they can be. What, after
all, do doctors, reporters and Mexicans share apart from their humanity,
of course? But, by digging a little deeper we are able, at least,
to hazard an informed guess as to what is going on.
All of
these organizations are associated with leftish political philosophy
in general, and with support for world government in particular.
Perusing
the web sites of these various groups does not immediately yield
this result. An examination of Doctors Without Borders, for example,
exhibits, merely, concern with bringing medical attention to those
in need, wherever they may be located. Similarly, Journalists Without
Borders is devoted to safety for reporters wherever they may go,
and Mexicans Without Borders is dedicated to open immigration (at
least in a northward directions) between that nation and our own.
It would be difficult to find more dissimilar concerns than these.
But an
answer to our query is lurking in the underbrush. If that is all
that Doctors Without Borders is concerned with, why do they not
call themselves "Physicians for the needy," or "Have
stethoscope and scalpel, will travel," or "Doctors who
go anywhere?" Why have Journalists Without Borders eschewed
such characterizations as "We’re reporters, we go to the ends
of the earth" or "International journalists?" As
for Mexicans Without Borders, why not "Mexicans against immigration
restrictions?"
No, no.
What they all have in common is, yes, an adherence to world government.
Now, before we go any further, I have a confession to make. There
is nary a word, heck, there is not a single solitary explicit indication
linking any of these "Without Borders" groups to the world
government philosophy. Nada, not one. But, I am involved here in
an exercise in verstehen, not empirical evidence mongering.
 What
does "without borders" mean? Well if we interpret this
narrowly, it means an aversion to borders. Which borders?
City borders? No. The property borders between neighbors? Again,
no. The answer is, of course, national borders. But what
does this mean? Well, a world without national borders implies,
at least for most people, wait for it, yes, World Government. For,
this is precisely what world government is: no national borders
on the entire planet. Instead of ultimate authority lying in the
hands of some 200+ sovereign nations, it would be under the control
of but one entity, located perhaps in New York City (the United
Nations) or, more likely, in Brussels (the European Community).
 There
is of course one exception to this analysis, but this proves the
rule, does not undermine it. Suppose there were a group called "libertarian
anarchists for open borders." Then and only then would our
insight not apply. For such advocates of open borders, too, as the
name suggests, would also want to do away with the nation state.
But would they want to substitute world government for these divided
sovereignties? Perish the thought. No, they would favor decentralism
down to the individual level.
That is,
where all other "without borders" groups favor moving
"up" from our present system of nation states to a one
world government, anarchists for "without borders" would
favor a move in the opposite direction, "down" in the
direction of individual sovereignty.
May
24, 2008
Dr.
Block [send him mail] is a
professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans, and a senior
fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of Defending
the Undefendable.
Walter
Block Archives
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