Thoughts.com Blogs - Nationalism

Nationalism grew from the marriage of state and culture ( Ernest Gellner, 1995) . What does this mean for us? Well, this marks the beginings for the concept of nationhood, national identity and but also a new form of social exclusion. Nationalism is a modern form of social organisation, and relies on a common 'high' culture and a shared method of communication, an imagined community (Benedict Anderson). This idea of the imagined community seeks to explain how it is that you as an Australia, America, Irish, English person can feel a connection with other country women/men etc. that you have never, met will never see or communicate with, yet the nation relies on your ability to imagine these people, your fellow country women/men etc. exists and you share a national identity and values and beliefs that encompass the character of your nation. However today, in globalisation theory and post modernism, there is a argument that the nation and nationalism is in decline due to the forces of our modern society global economies new communiation technologies such as the one I am using now, and global warming. All of these issues cause for a breaking down of national symbolic boundaries and an opening uo to other communities ourside of the national. This is true in some senses but other events such as 9/11 have also had the oposite effect, in causing nations to rebuid and strength national boundaries and reassert the power of states with alliances between nations, that actually in my opinion reinforce the nation as the significant form of social organisation at least in the western world.

Why is this important? and what should we wish for? Nationalism is both good and bad an the concept does not just refer to violent uprising and revolutionary groups, we flag nationalism as Australian or americans, when we sing our national athems or barrick for our national team, even on this website people define themselves in some way in relaiton to their country of origin and are in essence flagging their nationhood and reasserting the significance of the nation in our current global world. So nationalism is not better or worse on the front the the globalised or individualised world people can imagine it is just a product of the modern world . Nationalism was first fully fledged as we understand it , in a global sense, oday in the early 20th century , although we see early examples in the french and american revolutions however these coutries were not fully imagined as national communitites until the event of industralisation. This discussion in also important as it can allow us to understand recent events with the creation of Kosovo as an independent state, but is also can help us understand where we are going into the future.