Nations and Nationalism
In an increasingly pluralistic society, "we need to think ourselves beyondthe nation," (158). Traditional concepts of the nation-state focus on landand clearly defined geo-political borders, common languages, commonhistories, blood ties, and cultural traditions. However, that whichpreviously united a people under a rubric called "nation" no longerapplies, as territory itself is less important to the definition of a"nation" than a shared identity forged through what AUTHOR identifies asdiasporas. Mass migrations of people across geo-political boundaries hascreated nations-within-nations, minority ethnic, religious, or racialgroups that unite first under their bond and second under the laws andcustoms of their newly adopted nation-state. AUTHOR calls these subcultures"trans-nations," pointing to the requisite hyphen that attends so
Furthermore, the terrorist organizations that the United States and othersfight against are even more decentralized, even more transnational andpostnational. As AUTHOR points out, separatist groups like the Basques or Quebecoissometimes stake their claims for land more as a symbol of their trans-national identity than for the actual desire for autonomous statehood. The "war onterror" is a post-national "war" fought by trans-national groups. In fact, many terrorist organizations are non-national: theyoperate without allegiance to any one nation-state and do not constitutemembership to traditional tribe. Even those Americans who love their nation-state for what it iscannot or will not buy into the spoon-fed patriotism encompassed by suchoddly named political tactics as the PATRIOT Act. Thesegroups might be implementing the military might of specific nation-stateslike the United States or Great Britain, but even then, the wartimeobjective is not to gain or regain territory or to defend one's borders. African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans comprise some of the dislocated,decentralized nations that help form fresh insight into the concept ofnation and of nationalism. Moreover, transnationalism impacts traditionalpatriotic sentiments, sometimes by undermining it and other times by simplyaugmenting the need for newly forged social forms. Moreover, the "war onterror" evokes a new type of war, one fought not between two nation-statesor warring tribes but between two decentralized ideologies. Not allindividual members of transnations arrange their allegiances in such ahierarchical fashion, but multiple allegiances have neverthelesstransformed the ideology of nationalism. Recent attempts by the United States to create resurgence in Cold War-style nationalism has been met with mixed success and has created greatbacklash. While geo-political borders haveyet to totally wash away under the tide of post-national social forms, suchborders hold less sway over the citizens contained within them. Traditional patriotism is defined as the latter, while new post-nationalpatriotism is defined by the former. However, AUTHOR distinguishes between allegiance to one's culturallyor racially-defined nation and being willing to die for one's country.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
