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Entry: Race, Nationalism, and Patriotism, Part II: Nationalism Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/race_nationalism_and_patriotism_part_ii_nationalism#15686 Post contents: equating nationalism and the nation The fundamental problem is this, under modern conditions one must control a state to maintain the nation, even a raceless 'cultural nation' of Zmirak-esque fantasies. This has been all worked by guys like Ernest Gellner, Eric Hobbsbawm, Anthony Smith, Walker Connor. They disagree on a lot, but they recognize that keeping a cultural nation without a state is next to impossible today. Hence Zionism (I use the term neutrally) , hence diaspora Jews programs such as birthright Israel and J-date and their panic about mixed marriages (see Eliott Abrams). All about trying not to end up homogenized into 'American' culture. The only really successful groups that manage are ones that consciously reject modernity like the Amish and Hassids, or outcasts like gypsies. So you get Yugoslavia. For Croats to exist and continue, they needed to shuck off Serbo-Croatian and 'Yugoslavia'. They need to have their own language , taught in schools they run, their own history, by their own authors.(BTW despite the name I have no family or biological connection to the Southern Slav space or peoples). So some sort of national-ism is necesary, an ideology that justifies a people's controlling their own territory. Patriotism, without institutional embodiment, is not enough. Sent at: 2008 07 06