Part of Marcus' ideology I'm vaguely plagiarizing from some people's actual ideology.)
The wall was bright green. Marcus took another step. The wall was suddenly bright orange. The property line, just one of several hundred in the apartment building, happened on the fifth floor.
Marcus knocked on the door.
"Hello?"
"Hi! My name's Marcus Rearreman, I'm running for Parliament, do you have a minute?"
"Oh...well, sure."
"Glad to hear it." Marcus broke into a broad smile. "You know, you hear a lot of people talk about "nationstates", as if the world is subdivided into these neat little puzzle pieces." He shook his head sadly. "It's just not true."
"Oh, I agree."
"Do you? That's wonderful."
Nod. "Borders are arbitrary, there's really no such thing as a national identity underlying it all."
"Exactly! Too much focus on "nations" is just a form of stereotyping."
"I think so, too. If part of some other country were to wind up in Zwangzug tomorrow morning, that wouldn't really be a problem."
"And if part of Zwangzug were to wind up in some other country tomorrow morning, it wouldn't really be a problem either?"
"Well..." At this, the prospective voter squinted. "I don't know, it would depend on the country."
"I'm not sure I understand."
"If the people there wound up in a dictatorship, maybe, that oppressed its people...that would be bad."
"But aren't all governments equally bad, when you think about it?"
"Um..." The "you" addressed thought about it. "No?"
"Think about what kind of society you live in. What happens if you don't pay your taxes?"
"I do pay my taxes!"
"But what if you didn't?"
"Then...I'd go to a reeducation camp, I guess."
"Where the state will try to brainwash you into letting them take all your money? That doesn't sound very "democratic" to me..." Marcus made the quotation marks in the air with his fingers.
"Well..."
"After the police come after you with their Tasers, that is."
"Well, okay...but other countries are worse, they have their, their "armies", and their, uh, what's it called. "Capital punishment" and..."guns"..."
"Just because other "countries"" (air fingers again) "are worse doesn't mean this system is good."
"So if you don't like the government, why are you running for Parliament?"
"In the hopes that thirty of my fellows will join me, whenupon we will dissolve the state through peaceable means."
"I like peaceable means!"
"That's good."
"But I don't want to dissolve the state."
"Why not?"
"Well...if we didn't have the state, who would build schools?"
"Private groups, whoever wanted to."
"Who would stop people from polluting?"
"Market forces."
"What about welfare?"
"There would be charities."
"Yeah, but what if they didn't get enough money?"
"Would you donate to them?"
"Yeah."
"So what are you worrying about?"
"There might not be enough."
"But other people would donate, too."
"You don't know that."
"I've started on the ground floor today and knocked on every door. And that's just today. I think I have a pretty good idea what people think."
"Yeah, but you can't assume people would give money."
"Hmm...Are you an "immigrant", by chance?"
"Um, no. No, I'm not. Nothing against my newest compatriots, but...no, I was born in this country."
"This country," said Marcus, with just a hint of sarcasm. "I take it that your ancestors were utopians trying to set up an egalitarian community?"
"Why...yes! Yes they were!"
"And more recent ancestors have instilled moral values in you, leading you to think that helping those in need is a good idea?"
"Yes! Yes they have!"
"And do you think the other people in this apartment building have the same upbringing as you, in that sense, roughly speaking?"
"Why...yes, I think most of them do!"
"But you don't think anyone else would donate to charity, if the state were to disappear?"
A look of intent, focused, concentration. "Are you asking me," finally came the reply, "to make assumptions about other people on the basis of where they were born?"
"Yes..."
"That would be nationalism," was the smug retort, "and as we have just agreed, would be a silly fallacy."
Marcus sighed. "Okay. Hey, I'm gonna be in the debate Saturday night, seven pm on AM a thousand."
"Okay, cool."
A minute later, there was the sound of knocking against a bright blue wall with red polka-dots on it.