ANY READER OF HISTORY WILL HAVE COME ACROSS THE WORD "BORDERLANDS"....
MANY PEOPLE INTERPRET THIS TO MEAN "LAND ACROSS THE BORDER"... OR "SOMEPLACE DIFFERENT"...OVER THERE...
BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT I THINK WAS MEANT...WHEN THE TERM "BORDERLANDS" WAS ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED...
RATHER, IF YOU LOOK AT THE OLD MAPS OF EUROPE AND ASIA... PRE-19TH CENTURY... YOU WILL NOTICE THAT THE NATIONS AND STATES DEPICTED ARE OFTEN SHOWN AS AMORPHOUS BLOBS...SORT OF AIRY BUBBLES OF INFLUENCE...
WHY IS THIS...?
WELL BECAUSE IN THOSE TIMES CLEAR MEASURING OF DISTANCES AND NATIONAL BOUNDRIES WAS NOT POSSIBLE... THINGS WERE MORE "TRIBAL" AND LESS "NATIONAL" IN THE MODERN SENSE...SO CLEAR BOUNDRIES WERE NOT NEEDED.
TRUE, OCCASIONALLY, A RIVER WOULD DIVIDE TWO COUNTRIES...BUT IN THE HINTERLANDS...THERE WERE NO BOUNDRIES...NOTHING FOR SURE...ONLY "THE BORDERLANDS."
ONLY A NOTION THAT ..."SOMEWHERE"...AROUND THIS PLACE...ONE NATION HAS ENDED AND ANOTHER BEGAN...
THESE PLACES WERE "THE BORDERLANDS"... VAST NO MAN'S LANDS WHERE THE WRIT OF ONE KING MAY BE AS GOOD AS THE WRIT OF ANOTHER KING... DUAL SOVERIEGNTY, DUAL JURISDICTION...OR PERHAPS AND MORE OFTEN NO JURISDICTION...NO SET OF LAWS APPLIED...
TODAY WE DEMAND CLEAR BORDERS BETWEEN THIS AND THAT... WE KNOW HOW TO MEASURE THINGS AND DRAW BORDERS...PRECISELY.
BUT "BORDERLANDS" STILL EXIST... THE FINANCIAL MARKETS SEEM TO BE IN A BORDERLAND NOW...
STUCK BETWEEN WHAT HAS JUST ENDED...BUT NOT QUITE FULLY INTO WHAT IS COMING NEXT...
