The border of a nationality does not exist ‘in-itself’ in the same way that, say, a mountain, a shell or the moon exists. The border of a nationality is a condition that exists, if it can be said to exist at all, in the mind of the one who passively accepts it as existing. It is a ready-cut cloth, a costume, a fabricated flag, which is used to cover our nothingness.

Nationalism is ultimately unethical, not merely because it is an inauthentic posture, but because it imposes limitations on the authenticity of others.

Have you noticed, it's always the nationalists who deny climate change," says Eve. "Like they can't handle the challenge of thinking globally. I just wish they didn't take us all down with them.

Them-and-us nationalism has been done before. We have seen where that leads: it does not end well. Nationality is as vaporous and as insubstantial as a collective dream, no more spiritual than a National Insurance number and no less randomly bestowed: determined by chance, conditioned by prejudice. We have moved beyond the apeman's horizon. We have. Surely we have.