Is it possible to get rid of nationalism?

[Flying Pig]

Ah, yes. The perils of copy and paste.

 

[Yeekim]

All you'd be saying there is "people tend to imagine themselves as members of groups, and to identify with those groups, and sometimes to prioritise certain identities in certain contexts, unless they don't". It doesn't explain anything, it contains no mechanism which we can identify in these disparate phenomena, and there's certainly no reason why we should identify this non-observation with the otherwise historically-specific label of "nationalism". It's all but trivial.

If I may return to the question posed by OP:

Nationalism is an ideology responsible for more conflict, suffering, misery, and death than any other except perhaps religion (in that regard, the two can be considered forms of the same underlying problem). It continues to plague this planet and drive millions to slaughter, even though it fortunately doesn't do it any longer in the place where it originated, i.e. the continent where I was born.

Clearly, if we are to achieve maturity as intelligent beings, we need to get rid of it. We invented it, we created, we should be able to undo it and throw it into the dustbin of history.

So, if a disaster set humanity back a thousand of so years, leading to collapse of states (including nation-states) and return of clan-based social order to Scotland, would you say to him: "There. We're finally rid of the historically-specific nationalism and have achieved maturity as intelligent beings. Rejoice!"?

 

[Tahuti]

Why? The French Revolution itself displaced other, equally easy to remember, methods of identity. If anything it's an excellent example of how easily and quickly these identities can fall apart.

Well, nationalisms come and go, but nationalism itself doesn't. In fact, I'm beginning to doubt whether it is even a modern concept at all: Most modern nations are modern concepts, but you pointed out yourself that modern national ideas simply displaced other local collective identities akin to nationalism.

One could view Roman citizenship as a form of nationalism, for instance. Pre-Modern (before plusminus 500 AD) societies had their pantheons, where membership of a polytheistic religion essentially entailed some sort of national identity as well.

 

[Domen]

Did you also notice "internationalization of nationalism" taking place ??? I found the video below in the internet - it shows Hungarians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Spaniards, Dutch people (see Spanish / Dutch flags at the end of the video), etc., who came to Poland to participate in Independence Day March on 11 November:


Link to video.

The standard definition of a nationalist is someone who is egoist about his own country but does not care about all other countries.

Here we can see people who call themselves nationalists (like this Slovak at the beginning) and yet they support also another country.

 

[Tahuti]

Well, I've heard stories of a Right-Wing populist British politician who was labeled an Armenian nationalist for supporting the Nagarno-Karabakh Republic.

Wait, are you trying to insinuate Polonophilia Polish Nationalism to CFC again?

 

[Domen]

No, I was just asking why the heck people from other countries celebrate Poland's Independence Day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Independence_Day

National Independence Day (Polish: Narodowe Święto Niepodległości) is a public holiday in Poland celebrated every year on 11 November to commemorate the anniversary of Poland's resumption of independent statehood in 1918 after years of partition by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

Well, I also do celebrate US Independence Day... but only because it happens to be my dad's birthday.

 

[Phrossack]

Wait, are you trying to insinuate Polonophilia Polish Nationalism to CFC again?

I'm starting to suspect that Domen is some kind of Prussian revanchist hell-bent on harming his Slavic foes. I mean, he knows that every Polish-centered post and thread he makes helps make Poland unpopular here, and he's been pretty hard at work on those.

 

[Domen]

My post above was not Polish-centered, I just used a video involving Poland as an example...

My question was about "internationalization" of nationalisms in Europe.

Why do nationalists (or whoever they are) from one country celebrate independence day of another country ???

========================================

And these guys are not Pan-Slavists, considering that there were also people from Hungary, Spain and from the Netherlands.

========================================

I found out that one of groups from Spain who participated in the Independence Day March on 11 November were these guys:

http://www.polandfirsttofight.com/

http://wpolityce.pl/galerie/66739-h...anska-na-swieto-niepodleglosci-zobacz-zdjecia

OK - so we have some Spanish reenactors who are fans of Polish history. But there were also other groups, and not just from Spain.