ONE'S OWN BODY BECOMES A BODY POLITIC

Borders separate inside from outside. Security discourses define enemies. As long as an enemy exists, the nation exists. The idea of a nation is not separate from the idea of an enemy.

Contemporary politics is based on the equation of one’s own body with a body politic. The human being projects his body into the outer world--experiencing himself as--becoming--a body politic.

For the nationalist, one's own body and the body politic become one and the same. Defending a nation is protecting one's own body