"...in which he declared himself a "citizen of the world." That was an oxymoronic boast, given that citizenship connotes allegiance to a particular polity, its laws and political processes. But the boast resonated in Europe."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/11/AR2010081104747.html
Will's piece is as always pithy and enlightening. However what of this bit that analyses the catch phrase "citizen of the world"?
Here's his next paragraph:
"The European Union was born from the flight of Europe's elites from what terrifies them -- Europeans. The first Thirty Years' War ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which ratified the system of nation-states. The second Thirty Years' War, which ended in 1945, convinced European elites that the continent's nearly fatal disease was nationalism, the cure for which must be the steady attenuation of nationalities. Hence the high value placed on "pooling" sovereignty, never mind the cost in diminished self-government."
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