Nation as a concept

In his book Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson discusses the concept of a nation as a socially constructed concept. Defining the concept of nation can be problematic as it relies on the defining, characterization and separation of people into categories that they themselves may not see themselves fitting into. When someone looks at me, they are very likely to make assumptions about my identity based on my race. In all honesty I was very uncomfortable in class when we were asked to separate into racial identities and had to stand up and give an explanation of where we come from. I was born in Michigan and have spent a large portion of my life in Brazil and Switzerland. Although my parents are from India, when I go to India I am looked at differently than the people around me. I do not reject my ancestry, but my race does not define me. The fact that you are now aware of the fact that my parents are Indian may confirm some preexisting notions you had of me. I have to admit that when I left the classroom after that exercise, I felt very uncomfortable, as though I confirmed a stereotypical notion of who I was. I believe that people are united and feel part of a nation when there are identifiable characteristics in others that are similar to themselves.

It is in human nature to divide things and put them into neat little categories and the concept of a nation is an extensive manifestation of this tendency.   Yet, nationality has become an integral part of what defines us as human beings. For some people the nation (the same could be said about gender, sexuality and race) plays a dominating role in their conceptions of themselves. I am going to be a complete geek right now, but when I was younger I used to watch a lot of Star Trek (not ashamed) with my family. I always used to wonder if human being could ever become peaceful and stop killing each other and if inequality could truly be eradicated. This show makes me sad because I realized that based on models of decision making (strategic choice, organizational theory, game theory etc etc) the only way that humans could be truly equal across nations is if there was some other identifiable "other". Currently, "others" are other nations and politically the "nation-state" must protect itself against said others.

Can a global community exist in a system (hierarchy?) where nations are forever competing against one another? I have absolutely no idea.