Anatomy of a Nation

"Anatomy of a Nation." 

In this brief essay, I will identify the components of a nation and how they are analogous to the human body.  The essay will attempt to personify the working mechanics of a functional nation or empire into a conceptual human body.  Nation or empire can be used interchangeably as the range of the political scope is irrelevant, so long as they are still recognized as a single polity.  Doing so will provide a vivid diagram of how one might perceive the nation they live in as a functioning human body.  This essay might clarify the relationship between each moving and functioning part of a body politic.  I shall endeavor to do so succinctly and without an overabundance of abstruse language.   

To begin, the face of the nation is the first thing that people see when they look at a person.  In a nation, this is represented by her political leaders and functionaries.  The face of the empire may smile, snarl, or cringe depending on what the leadership of that nation is advocating, denouncing, or commending.  Facial representations that are not in sync with the entire body are referred to as a “tic,” and such, are considered so when the political leadership makes remarks counter to its own interests or ideals.  When she agrees that something is absurd, the face smiles, and when something is distressing, she frowns. 

    The left hand of the nation represents the cultural aspect of said nation.  The left hand grasps at relics of art, beauty, and entertainment.  The nation uses her left hand to pull into its dominion this that she finds desirable and covets and pushes away things that she disdains or finds repulsive.  The upper side of the left hand is one that represents the popular entertainers, the known actors, and the cultural icons for which the nation chooses to acknowledge as her own unique message.  On the lower face of the hand, the hand hides its counterculture, and with it, it's more distasteful opinions and styles.  The left hand, in its totality, represents a force for which a nation wields its most creative powers.   

    The right hand of a nation represents the might of the nation.  The right hand is where the state grants its authority to a military leadership of some kind.  The fingers could be representative of differing, and often autonomous branches of military with specific delegated duties.  The right hand pulls forward any weapons she wishes to bring to bear against its enemies and pushes away all opponents who might wish to get too close to her boundaries.  The upper side of the right hand favors the acknowledged military leaders such as generals and military advisors.  The underside of the right hand includes its more dubious actors such as brown shirts or mobster elements.  Both sides of the hand have a function for creating order within its borders. 

    The left leg of the empire is the system of transportation of cultural and informational products.  The left leg moves at the speed in which new ideas, modalities of thought, and means of perceiving reality are attained by its populace.  To have a strong left leg, the nation must be able to develop styles, ideas, and conceptual goods and make them available in a marketplace suitable for its people to consume them.  A wonderous thought with no way to be distributed demonstrates a failure of the left leg to manipulate locomotion.  Radio, television, and the internet are superb examples of successful muscles working properly to tune the working power of the left leg.  She is truly using her left leg if new ideas are being produced and always consumed, 

    The right leg serves a more practical but no more important means of transportation from within the empire.  The right leg is used to send goods and services directly to the populace by means of roads and other classic forms of infrastructure.  The right leg needs a great deal of maintenance to keep the nation moving at full capacity.  The leg, while functioning, keeps her from slipping into disarray, and becoming easy prey to hostile or belligerent nations seeking to harass her.  She needs to keep her leg ambulating at all times to provide for the most basic needs and services of her people.  The importance of this leg in proper function can even be traced back to Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War. 

    The lungs of the nation represent the nation’s ability to perform commerce successfully.  The act of inhalation represents importation.  This is taking in good air, which is products and goods from outside its borders that are helpful and practical for her wellbeing.  The act of exhaling is the nation's ability to expel unwanted products that she wishes to market to other competing nations that allow her to benefit from.  She gets what she wants most, when she is exhaling only the least valued commodities to her own interests.  Out with the bad air, and in with the good air.  As they say. 

    The brain of a nation is the total sum of knowledge that a nation holds in all of her capacity.  The brain’s neural nodes are represented by libraries, educational institutions of any kind, and any stores of data that might be accessed or hoarded.  The brain can be a vast expanse of information in a complex and layered matrix.  A fully developed and nourished brain can provide a nation with the means to keep all its other parts functioning at its peak efficiency.  This is to say that her seat of power is centered here above all else. 

    Finally, there is the heart of a nation.  What makes up the heart of a nation, but its people.  Any nation needs people flowing and pumping blood in its veins to function to any degree, and the heart is the populace.  Blood simply reflects each citizen as a single blood cell.  But the populace as a whole, is that muscle known as the heart.  The nation has one beating center without there can be nothing.  A nation with no citizens is nothing more than an idea.  A church with no believers if you will. 

    With more time and thought I am sure I could further find analogies for other organs and other metaphors to continue this train of thought, but for now I will keep it to the basics.  I did this in the hope that someone might find out something interesting about the way I view political fundamentals.  While the educational possibilities of this essay are limited, I hope that someone may find this interesting when considering what the relationship between person and nation, and person there is.  For a nation personified, it is just as well you or me.