Great post. Moderns ignorant of history can't imagine a world w/o the modern nation state not realizing it is a relatively recent concept that has done nothing but enslave, tax, and kill, millions of people. The ironically named Peace of Westphalia gave us the modern State while the French Revolution added Nationalism to it. Then came the Napoleonic wars. The ideal State is, like you say, cities. Just think of the contributions to philosophy, the arts and sciences, made by the cities of Athens, Rome, Florence and Venice, all of them existing as independent City-States.
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