For country borders were merely lines on a map, not on the earth. And currency was little more than an agreed-upon idea, a value assigned to pretty minerals. An economy represented an intricate web of interests, of production and consumption, and seemed to always be destined to eventually collapse. Because every society, every civilization, seemed to want to reject one simple and evident truth. That man for all his forward progression was still, in his being, no better than a beast.
