blue-komrade said: But where is the line between ethnocentric nation states and empire anyway. The major european nations all descend from multi lingual, multi ethnic empires… Or is that your point?
yes, the construction of a homogeneous French identity, German identity, Italian identity, etc.
pushing common languages and suppressing dialects, as happened more recently in China and Indonesia.
and forcible movement of people to line up with national borders, as took place at various intervals throughout the 20th century.
Sometimes this is used to argue that nations aren’t really real in any valuable sense, but once you go up enough contrarianism levels from the normies you wrap around and say “actually, constructing nations is Good.”
regardless of whether it’s good or bad, it’s certainly powerful, and the original debate was whether anyone has a more powerful meme for cohesion, and so far the answer is no:
- international community of workers (Great War says no)
- religion (Henry VIII says no)
- united in joyful acclamation of the marriage of our beloved king (hell no)
- neoliberal technocracy (nationalism kicks its teeth in)
I think that last one is arguable. The fighting is going on right now, and Neolib Tech and its global finance isn’t licked yet for sure.
(Admittedly, I’m disappointed that the other Techs are so Neolib, but National Technocracy is always going to lack some appeal in the West.)
Edit: Well, for the meme staying dominant and having power. Cohesion, admittedly, not so much.