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Entry: National Consciousness And Nationalism Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/national_consciousness_and_nationalism#25527 Post contents: It seems to me that Daniel's account of nationalism is very sound. But under that definition, the militant and abstract internationalism of the neoconservatives would not easily fit. It's no more nationalist than Bolshevism or the unifying impulse of the Crusades. Thus, while it demands certain things from the US, it's not because of some characteristic of her people or history. It's instead solely a consequence of power: we're the "sole superpower" and since these foreign policy goals--democracy, capitalism--are non-negotiable and also the highest good, any omission on our part in bringing them about would not be just. It's a redefinition of the people and the nation as a mere instrument in the story of "progress," a Hegelian trajectory towards political and economic institutions similar to our own, but hardly identical, not least because our own are redefined more narrowly and abstractly than they are in practice. Thus elections, courts, and the like are enough, even when they're filled with illiberal parties, as in Iraq. It's a joke. To me nationalism is understood more narrowly in the present: it' s avital, natural identity with a narrow political goal to include self-preservation as a people and resistance to homogenization through global institutions, including the pressures of transnational business entities. Sent at: 2008 07 04