Nationalism
● Note the context of Europe’s transition into the modern period
● Political organisation during mediaeval period = empires rather than countries as
we know them now
● Breaking down of empires into nation states → birth of modern european state as
we know it today = result of the process of modernisation
● Led to ideology of Nationalism
● Nationalism made number of assumptions:
○ Actualised by people acting on the ideology’s philosophies
○ Every nation must be given a state (everyone who considered themselves
by part of a nation demanded for independent stateship from the empires
= fall of empires)
○ Demand made = right to self-determination (exclusive to nations)
○ Developed a “we” consciousness
○ Led to a struggle between Nationalists in Europe and Divine
Rulers/Mediaeval order of things
○ Transformed the way we consider politics in the world (now with the
modern state)
● Nation = socio-cultural entity = community that shares a language, culture, and
myth of common origin
○ Build myths that sustain the nation
○ Can never be wrong as it is in its effect, not its logical reasoning → use the
effect of the myth to sustain its correctness
● Essentially the same groups which would be considered nations in Europe, are
known in Africa as Ethnicities
● State = political construct
● Coming together of the Nation and the State = the Nation-State
○ Supposition that it is the only acceptable form of political organisation
○ Error of this assumption = implying there is a congruence between the
boundaries of the nation and the boundaries of the state
○ Ie within the boundaries of the modern state should be found the
constituents of one nation
○ Assumed that states were therefore uni-ethnic
○ Was deconstructed around 1970s when self-determination was demanded
by other ethnic groups within the state
○ Would have been more accurate to be said to be constituted as a
State-Nation
○ Built the idea of being a Nation using ethnic symbols
○ Error = dominant ethnic group builds national image around their ethnic
symbols
○ If you recognise society as a state-nation, you can build the new national
identity based on civic symbols
■ Known as nation building
○ Has caused many groups in Europe wanting to be recognised as
independent states
, ○ State-Nation can also be seen as a melting pot (American origin)
○ White Anglo-saxon Protestant values central to this melting pot
○ Shared the same moral order as Industrial Capitalism
○ Productive relationship between capitalism and nationalism
○ Without nationalism, the discipline of economics would not exist →
fundamentals of capitalism rely on nations to exist
○ Says that any economic benefit of the state should benefit those of that
nationality (Benefit of the state belongs to the nation)
○ Xenophobia = issue of Nationalism
○ State-nation = acknowledgement of plurality/Nation plurality (ie
multi-ethnic)
○ Problem with nationalism = attempting to achieve national homogeneity
(homogenous nation)
○ Nationalism = functional to Capitalism
■ The identity of a nation controls the economic consumption
○ Capitalism = functional to Nationalism
■ National affinity made possible by modern media and the
consumption of the same commodities (the core identifier)
■ Build a sense of mutuality due to the common emotions and
reactions being linked to what is reported in the media (eg
something bad happening somewhere else in South Africa warrants
a similar emotional response from anyone sharing the Nationality)
○ One can’t accept Nationalism without accepting Capitalism
○ Shared moral order = the moral order of the modern moment
■ Relationship between reason, rationality, and the idea of
progress
■ Nationalism therefore invariably subscribes to the modern
epistemological knowledge (modern disciplinary knowledge)
■ Nation became a unit of modern disciplinary knowledge production
■ Mutual functionality between Nationalism and any Modern
Disciplinary Knowledge
■ Demand to record the history of the Nation, which is contradicted
by their self understanding of mythical origin
■ Sees Liberal Democracy as the only way in which a state should
function
■ Nationalism as an ideology = ideology of Modernity (in sync with
the modern consciousness)
■ Makes sense in Europe as it develops in the Modern European
Consciousness
○ Large portion of Modernity = built on myths
■ Eg of one of the myths = idea of money
■ Money = a promissory note that is never met by the person giving
the money - only when material products or services are
exchanged for that money
■ Money attributes value to commodities based on its price tag
■ Leads to commodification of people ie a person’s value/value of
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