Nation-states, like human bodies, draw a clear distinction between what is inside and what must remain outside. Nations have clearly delineated boundaries--just as bodies do. Nations reject or eject (and sometimes kill) entities (human beings) conceived as alien or foreign or not-self

A human being may become paranoid imagining that another human being may enter into one's own body. National defense is based on national paranoia. We project our bodies into nation-states--and struggle to prevent the national body (our own body) from being violated.

Warfare revolves around fear of being "penetrated" by a foreign power. Hitler stated in Mein Kampf  that only with Germany's "rear protected" against England--could he embark on war against Russia.

The political is the personal: The system of nation-states may represent a projection of how our bodies function: nationalism as immunology.