The Nation delusion

"But if the facts are clear, their explanation remains a matter of long-standing dispute. Nation, nationality, nationalism -- all have proved notoriously difficult to define, let alone to analyse. In contrast to the immense influence that nationalism has exerted on the modern world, plausible theory about it is conspicuously maegre." -- Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities

   "The Nation" is something that everyone is familiar with with the small exception of isolated namadic peoples and gypsies who even so are likely made very aware of their rebelling against the conformity that is belonging to a nation. Scholars have difficulty defining a nation simply because there is not hard and fast way to sum up something that has become a catalyst for pride, war, and identification. What nation we belong to, whether we regularly hum Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," occasionally tear up during the scene in Casablanca where the fearless cafe-goers stand up and sing the French national anthem in resistance to Nazi stronghold, or even fall under the category of people so ashamed of the recent foreign policy of a country we study abroad under the guise of being Canadian, it is hard to escape the twinge of upset when someone directly poses malice to a nation, a labeled community, that we have been raised to incorporate as an an integral part of our identity. Such malice becomes a personal insult on some levels. However, this does not make the strong feelings toward a nation any more understandable.

   For all intents and purposes a nation, or nationalism, does not exist. As soon as one tries to define the United States and what makes it a nation, paradoxes arise. When considering the average person and their views of what a nation consists of we come up with commonalities in values, politics, religion, culture, and language. Yet the values of the United States are unclear with coastal urban city values contrasting greatly to the rural town values of the midwest and south. The values range from place to place so much so that by law, vulgarity has to be determined by the state and the general values of the community in which it takes place. Utah's values are much more conservative compared to California's values. Next we consider politics, the United States is fundamentally divided on almost every hot-button politic issue. The polarity between democrats and republicans has risen to such a degree that people within the two parties talk to each other witch such lack of understanding for the other side it is as though the two live in completely different parallel universes. Religion is no different on this matter, while the United States is one of the most religious first world countries on the global, it's highest minority group on the charts consists of atheists, with around 15% denouncing religion. That aside, secularism has risen in the states as well as many new age religions like Scientology and Wicca which were once considered cults but are now recognized religions. Cultures vary just as diversely with the phrase "the country is a melting pot" as a ringing affirmative as well as languages as the United States has not official language at all. Through propaganda and imagined nationalized traditions and holidays, the citizens feel as though they belong to the United States almost in the same way trendsters in the 1980's bought "Members Only" jackets in the hopes of representing their status as "belonging" somewhere.

   When I think about the pointlessness and destructiveness of nationalism I usually think of three things: sports fanatics, people who declare their ethnicities like they know what being 1/32 Native American is all about, and that Meg Ryan movie French Kiss. I think about sports fanatics in relation to nationalism because they use the same sort of responsibility-less "we" and "our" words when referring to things they did nothing to contribute to. Example: "Yeah, we got three goals and wont the game against Manchester United in the Cup Championships last night!" No you didn't. You, who have never physically played a game of soccer in your life, were sitting on a coach watching paid professionals who have no idea who you are and don't care about your opinions of them, literally bend over backwards to win a game that you are now trying to share credit for. This is the same as when I hear Americans brag about governmental policies that they feel best the governmental policies of other countries when really they know nothing about political science at all and are just speaking out of nationalistic pride after a lifetime of rehearsed national superiority brainwashing. I think it's okay to say that Franch has a better health care system than us and that Canada has a better sense of foreign policy, many nationalistic Americans would call me unpatriotic for saying so however. I also think about how in middle school my friends and I would ask each other what ethnicities we were. I'd say I was about a quarter Irish, a quarter Spanish, a quarter Scottish, and a quarter English and invariably there would be someone would would give a similar ethnic makeup but would proudly proclaim they were 1/32 Native American. This would illicit some gasps of amazement at how unique and culturally intriguing this person was when really the person had been raised no less Caucasian than the rest of us and had no idea anything about the tribe their ancestor was from or what traditions were long lost to them. People like to talk about how "American" they are without realizing there is not set standard for being American. Perhaps the illegal immigrants who have spent years living in America, doing American jobs, interacting with American employers, contributing to American society are just as much American as me. Lastly, I think of the film French Kiss starring Meg Ryan about a woman who is born American, gives up her citizenship to become Canadian like her fiancee, and then loses her fiancee to a French woman prompting her to leave for Paris without completing the Canadian citizenship process and leaving her without a home nation at all. In the end she settles on becoming a French citizen, but not before going through a few identity crises and a lot of soul searching. Although nationalism is imagined and undefinable it has become a basic way for people to label themselves and label each other, categorizing being a major part of human nature, so much so that living in a world without nations would seem unnatural and uncomfortable to most and even unnerving to some.