Lee Metcalf: “during 1969, C.P. Kindleberger wrote that the ``nation-state is just about through as an economic unit.'' He added that…”

“during 1969, C.P. Kindleberger wrote that the ``nation-state is just about through as an economic unit.'' He added that the U.S. Congress and right-wing-know-nothings in all countries were unaware of this. He added, ``The world is too small. Two-hundred-thousand ton tank and ore carriers and airbuses and the like will not permit sovereign independence of the nation-state in economic affairs.'' Before that, Emile Durkheim stated, ``The corporations are to become the elementary division of the state, the fundamental political unit. They will efface the distinction between public and private, dissect the democratic citizenry into discrete functional groupings, which are no longer capable of joint political action.'' Durkheim went so far as to proclaim that through corporations' scientific rationality it ``will achieve its rightful standing as the creator of collective reality.'' There is little question that part of these statements are accurate. America has seen its national sovereignty slowly diffused over a growing number of International Governing Organizations. The WTO, the World Trade Organization, is just the latest in a long line of such developments that began right after World War II. I am old enough to remember that time. But as the protest in Seattle against the WTO Ministerial Meeting made clear, the democratic citizenry seemed well prepared for joint political action.”