Blog #5: Gaga Nation

Oh if only Lady Gaga were a state… or do we have Lady Gaga states already? In the prompt we’re lead to believe that if Lady Gaga were to be a state, it would be the type of state that would break the rules an defy social convention. Now there are two types of state that could be categorized like this, the “we know we’re breaking the rules and that’s the point” nations and the “we just like to do things a little differently and maybe you don’t understand it” nations.

Playing for the “we know we’re breaking the rules and that’s the point” team are nations like North Korea and Iran. These two nations in particular seem to derive a certain kind of joy in breaking the rules. Both of these nations have continued to work towards developing nuclear capabilities even with the greater global community urging them not to and often taking further action against them. Examples of how the global community deals with these nations can be seen today, some countries have embargos with them, some countries don’t acknowledge that they’re nations and the list goes on. But in the end, until these countries break through their sovereign boundaries, the global community won’t overtly act against them. As for Lady Gaga, some people may think she’s more like these types of nation, she knows she’s breaking the rules and that’s exactly the point. And often times, people who view her this way deal with her in just the same way the global community deals with the “rule breakers”, they just try to keep Gaga away from their kids, back in the record store, and hope she just fades away.

Playing for the second team are the “we just like to do things a little differently and maybe you don’t understand it” nations. These nations are ones that the United States might not have anything against, but may consider different or belonging to the “other” category, often times the U.S. may not care whole lot about these countries. It may also be the case that until the U.S. feels it needs to do something in these types of nations, it won’t. This is how some people deal with Gaga, she’s not their cup of tea, they know that, but they aren’t going to hate her, they just don’t really get her. So this group of people simply keeps their distance from Lady Gaga until she does something they really can’t stand.

Overall, I think we do have some countries that are deliberately violate and intentionally break rules just as Lady Gaga does, but they can be broken up into two broad groups. The global community and the U.S. had dealt with these countries throughout history, maybe currently they’re Iran or North Korea, but tomorrow they will be a different group of countries, just as they were a different group fifty years ago.