Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-5507557-20130411125020/@comment-188432-20130415140022

Nah, he's using slight metaphor, in the same sense that we regularly say in English, "Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation." We don't mean that Saudia Arabia is sentient. We mean that its population is by and large Islamic. Or in some contexts we mean that its government is based on Islamic Law. Either way, we're not suggesting that a piece of land has weighed the pros and cons of various religions, and has decided, on balance, that Islam is a Pretty Good Idea.