The essence of politics is attachment to the body of the sovereign. The image below (the frontispiece of Leviathan) is perhaps the most famous one in the history of politics. Not without reason. It conveys the fundamental fantasy that structures political life. This fantasy is a bodily fantasy.

Citizens imagine that they are bound to the body of the sovereign. The nature of this attachment--as conveyed by the image--is SYMBIOTIC. There is no escape. The bodies of the citizens constitute the body of the sovereign. The sovereign would not exist if there were no citizens bound to his body. The body of the sovereign and the bodies of the citizens are one body.

The sovereign is the nation; the nation is the sovereign. It's a body politic: many bodies united to form one omnipotent body.

This is the fantasy that structures the politics of nationalism. It's happening right now, at the moment that you are reading the Library of Social Science Newsletter. You can't resist the current American leader. You are symbiotically attached to him. A moment after you read this, you will turn away to unite with the body of the current sovereign. You can't resist. You are symbiotically attached. You don't want to be left out ("it's a family affair").

Richard A. Koenigsberg