"The concept «nation», which at its origins was an expansive concept, and therefore active and fruitful, and as such inspired and informed the nations of Europe among which we were born and have lived until to date, it has lost its expansive qualities and has instead acquired restrictive qualities. Restricted and impoverished, this concept no longer has active force but has become passive, it is no longer centrifugal but has become centripetal, it no longer responds to ideas of development, growth, enlargement but obeys ideas of impoverishment, narrowing, reduction : a sign that the concept "nation" as conceived by those who created the nations has in the meantime lost its virtues and from a fruitful concept it has become an infertile concept, from an active idea it has become a passive idea, from a beneficial principle it has become an evil principle. (Beyond Barriers, p. 12)"
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