I agree with Garton Ash’s point of view that is in line with Fukuyama’s regarding the end of history. However, I want to think of this in light of our own class discussion on the individual level. It seems that, given time, democratization, the influence and technology, and other factors, we will end up with the everyone-on-a-phone-in-the-coffee-shop dynamic: a bunch of people all shut into their own universes, losing their individuality through individualism, to quote Rory.

As I said, this seems inevitable. In all western nations, these circumstances are becoming increasingly the norm. Then, based off of Fukuyama’s thesis, to which we could not find an alternative, most nations are headed along that route. What happens when the entire world has this loss of individuality? Where will our sense of community come from? I think that, because of these two processes, there’s an increasingly real chance that community and a sense of community will come through internet communities. These will extend beyond borders and likely decrease nationalism and the potential for it. At this point, questions are raised regarding the nation-state – if people are no longer loyal to their state as a community (taking my argument to its extreme), what happens in the event of war or some other event that mobilizes a traditional state? I don’t have an answer…