Comments by "nuqwestr" (@nuqwestr) on "Fireside Chat Ep. 57 - What's Good About Nationalism? | Fireside Chat" video.

  1.  @OneOuttaOne  "Their Punishment G‑d decided to destroy their arrogance by destroying their ability to understand one another. He, therefore, confused the people by splitting them up into seventy different nations and tribes, each with a language of its own, (hence the name Babel, meaning “confusion”)." https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246611/jewish/The-Tower-Of-Babel.htm
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  2.  @OneOuttaOne  The article was produced by a religious organization which is authoritative, Chabad.org. I view scripture from a historical and evolutionary perspective, not a religious one. It's more important to me how humans have interpreted the story of Babel down thru the centuries, and what the context was at each interpretation. Often the "assumptions" are as telling as the story itself. 4,000 years may seem like a long time, but it is only about 50 people ago. 50 x 80 years is 4,000. Not much has really changed in human behavior over that time. I think it is safe to make the assumption on how they lived, and how they thought. Babel is an excellent metaphor describing the challenges of diversity in a population. Read Roman and Byzantine history, too, and you will find similar challenges. Borders are essential to all living beings. Your skin is a border, it allows good things in, and bad things out. The cells in our body have membranes that act as borders, and do the same thing, let the good in, and the bad out. If they fail to recognize the bad, and let them in, they die, and so do we. Nations require smart, functioning borders, or they die, too.
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