THE COLUMN: Invasion of the Nation-Snatchers

Since the gradual emergence of the nation-state in the aftermath of the collapse of the western Roman Empire in 476, that body politic has been the foundation of western civilization and thus of the world order. Hallmarks include territorial integrity, won and defended by means of warfare; a high degree of ethnic homogeneity; one dominant language; a single, shared political system and set of laws; and a shared religion.

None of this happened overnight, of course: even before the barbarian Odoacer replaced Romulus Augustulus on the throne in Ravenna (Rome having been abandoned as the seat of empire), the last of the great Roman generals, Aetius, had turned back Attila at the battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, saving Gaul and western Europe from domination by the Huns.

Man of the Year, 451.

Gradually, the bits and pieces of the Empire began to assume their roughly current forms, although the process took centuries. Roman Britain disappeared back into Celtic Britain, which in turn was replaced by Anglo-Saxon England, and conquered by the Franco-Normans in 1066; from this often bloody conflict emerged modern Britain. Similarly, Celtic and Romanized Gaul became France; the Celtiberian peninsula became Portugal and Spain. (If anyone has a beef about dispossession, it's the Celts.)

It was not until the 19th century that the German and Italian states were welded into single countries, today called Germany and Italy -- and even their borders have changed several times in the one hundred and forty or so years since their founding as political entities.

Indeed, Western European history was in part occasioned by a famous mass migration: the push westward into Gaul by the Helvetians, a Celtic tribe who occupied land in present-day Switzerland (reflected in the country's Latin name, the Confoederatio Helvetica). Under pressure from invading Germanic tribes in 58 B.C., the Helvetians wanted more desirable land to the south and west, in Roman Transalpine Gaul. They pulled up lock, stock, and barrel, burned their farms, and began the trek en masse.

Fearful of having ferocious Germans so close to their northern border, the Romans under their provincial governor, Julius Caesar, came to the aid of the Gauls and pushed the Helvetians back; as neighbors, the Romans vastly preferred the Gauls with whom they had many cultural and political ties. But this was only the pretext for an eight-year war in which Caesar conquered all of Gaul and incorporated it into what was fast becoming the Roman Empire.

Lampedusa welcomes the "new Italians." Or not.

Now things are changing again, as the world experiences another of its periodic mass migrations. Britain, France, Italy are undergoing fundamental transformation by untrammeled immigration, or invasion, from the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, while the United States -- founded as a colonial outpost of 17th-century Britain -- is today being overrun (with the tacit permission and sub rosa encouragement of the Biden administration via its de facto annulment of the southern border) by the peoples of central and South America, and from many other countries around the world as well.

Notice I said "countries." The term is used loosely, since "countries" are in many cases artificial designations imposed by Europeans and Americans on places hitherto considered tribal territories, regions, or enclaves. One need only look at a post-Sykes-Picot map of Mesopotamia to see the suspiciously straight lines drawn to mark the relatively new state of Iraq from its western neighbors. The idea of the nation-state is primarily a Western invention, imposed by fiat all over the world, even in such places as China, which was long a nation but seldom a state.

The international Left has long sought to remove the concept of "nationhood" from states: thus the references to "Swedes" named Mohammed or, in America, "Minnesota men" named Enrique and Osama. In their telling, you are wherever you live, however transitorially: in Ireland today, Muslims from Afghanistan and the hordes of Ukrainian "refugees" are referred to in the media and by the government as the "new Irish," while in the movies one hardly ever sees a "Briton" (that is to say, a Celt) who is not black. The goal is to erase any possible distinctions under the rubric of a shared passport.

At the same time, organizations such as the United Nations -- like NATO, a vestige of World War II whose time has long gone -- and the World Economic Forum in Geneva/Davos are hell-bent on erasing national borders and boundaries in the name of Globalism, a world governed from the top down by a Coalition of the Betters. Along with 16 eminent colleagues, I have presented a concrete critique of the WEF's all-consuming plans in Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the New World Order, so please feel free to consult that work for the gory details. You can also read excerpts from each piece here at the-Pipeline.org to find out why the West is worth defending.

Alas, the forces arrayed against the survival of the nation-state are powerful and potent. Among them is the current pontiff, a radical Italian Jesuit from Argentina, who has weaponized Catholic teaching about mendicants into a formidable instrument of geopolitics. "Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade," declared Pope Francis -- known to his many detractors as simply "Bergoglio" -- on his recent visit to Marseille. "They look for welcome. They look for life." Mass migration, he said, "is a reality of our times." Luckily, his statement was not made ex cathedra.

What then, are we going to do? Caesar, alas, is not available for consultation, but it's pretty clear from the Commentaries how he would handle it. Start working on your Latin, boys.