Question

A nation is a peculiar sort of community that is easy to describe but hard to define. Why? 

Hint:

A nation is a difficult concept to define as it’s based on both objective and subjective factors, including political and psychological components.

Answer 1

Common Characteristics: Many nations are founded on a basis of shared cultural, historical, and political institutions, which gives them a shared community feeling.
No Defining Features: However, it is often hard to come up with any defining features that all nations must possess, as different nations have varied histories, languages and cultures.
Exceptions to Every Criterion: For every possible criterion, there are exceptions and counter-examples which indicate the diverse nature of these ‘communities’ called nations.
Lack of Shared Elements: Many nations do not share a single common language, religion, ethnicity, etc. These commonalities are not enough to define the notion of a nation.
Shared Across Nations: There are many languages, religions or ethnicities that are shared across nations, which further highlights the difficulty in defining nations based on shared attributes.
Formation of Nation: While such shared cultural, historical, and political factors play an important role in creating a sense of community, they do not explain why a group of people who share such factors end up forming a nation. For example, the English language is spoken in many countries, but that does not make them into one nation. Also people of various religions and cultures exist in many different nations.