R: Yes, Scotland!

What are a people's greatest aspirations? Is total sovereignty a nation's only legitimate claim to existence?

This Thursday, Scots will head to the polls to decide the fate of their nation: they will either vote for independence from the United Kingdom or choose to remain subjects of the Crown that they have generally supported for over three centuries. It is the test of a spirit and of a tradition in our time, and the events that take place on that side of the globe will provide commentary on the pillars of communities and states the world over.

We can support the cause of an independent Scotland, and in doing so throw down our gauntlets against the waves of postmodern cultural indifference. We can rally one last charge for nationalism in the West, that in turn will speak to the hundreds of cultural and racial minorities still without states of their own. Standing for Scottish independence means standing for the belief in the liberated soul of a people, inherent to the land, food, dress, music, religion, and other customs that make a rabble into a mighty race.

But what of the other side? Is the nation really the fundamental building block of humanity given its bloody history? Indeed there is an argument to be made on two fronts. As modernity quickly reduces the world's cultures into select off-Western idiosyncrasies, the idea of a nation may already be anachronistic. Furthermore, is focusing on nations futile when many feel greater affinities for their towns and provinces than for strangers who might share some common tribal blood? And so it goes: the great debate on how Man organizes himself, his neighbors, and his people.