There are a lot of very brilliant people who believe that the nation-state is fast becoming a relic of the past.
Interpretation
The nation-state may soon be irrelevant as globalism rises and interconnectedness increases.
In this quote, William J. Clinton reflects on the perception that traditional nation-states are losing their significance in an increasingly interconnected world. As global challenges arise and people collaborate across borders, the idea of sovereignty tied to defined nation-states may become outdated, indicating a shift towards global governance and cooperation.
In practice
Discussing the implications of globalization at a political gathering.
You know, there was a recent poll which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social Security... It's very important you understand this. Once you understand this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.
When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly...When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.
For too long we've been told about 'us' and 'them.' Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that 'they' are the problem, not 'us.' But there can be no 'them' in America. There's only us.
There is a huge body of business evidence now showing that energy savings give better service at lower cost with higher profit. We have to tear down barriers to successful markets and we have to create incentives to enter them.
Demand that your government pays more attention. It's immoral that people in Africa die like flies of diseases that no one dies of in the United States. And the more disease there is, the more political unrest there will be, leading to more Darfurs, which the U.S. will have to pay to fix.
I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes.
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because things are going hardly with me? There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes.
Impermanence is not something to be afraid of. It's the evolution, a never-ending horizon.
I am unable to think of any critical, complex human activity that could be safely reduced to a simple summary equation.
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
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