History in the West shows modern nationalism goes hand-in-hand with flawed notions of race
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锘縁OREIGN VIEWS
Anyone who has studied the history of 鈥渢he West鈥 in the last couple of centuries knows how central the issue of nationalism has been to domestic and international turmoil.
Professor Benedict Anderson鈥檚 book, Imagined Communities, was originally published in 1983. I do not believe the intervening years have in any way provided evidence to weaken 鈥 let alone invalidate 鈥 professor Anderson鈥檚 analysis of the origins and development of nationalistic sentiments.
He reminds us that the entire concept of nationalism is, in fact, a relatively recent phenomenon of the last few centuries. For most of recorded history, in fact, people did not regard themselves as members of nations or national groupings but, rather, understood themselves as part of families, tribes, communities or regions. This is still true in many parts of the world.
Anderson explains that the emergence of national sentiment, the bedrock of nationalism, was tied to the evolution of the printing press and the preference for the vernacular over 鈥渙fficial鈥 (sacred or governmental) language.
Artificial labelling
As the use of vernacular languages became more common in written texts, this had the unanticipated effect of creating a sense of 鈥淔renchness鈥 or 鈥淕ermanness鈥 even among peoples who knew relatively few people 鈥 if any 鈥 outside their local village. Once this began to happen, it is amazing how quickly some 鈥渘ational characteristics鈥 began to be applied to national groupings; favorable ones for those doing the labeling, with less attractive ones being applied to out-group nationalities.
One of the greatest contributions of professor Anderson鈥檚 work for me was the realization of how artificial so much of this is. Although he does not dwell on it much, I also had a 鈥渂ingo鈥 moment when I realized the parallels between nationalism and racism. For both of these rely upon fixing identifiable characteristics upon entire groupings of peoples, as if all Americans, Chinese, Germans 鈥 or, for that matter, Caucasians, blacks, etc 鈥 possess common characteristics.
In a course from the Teaching Company that I recently finished on biological anthropology, the instructor 鈥 Professor Barbara King from William and Mary College in Virginia 鈥 spent some time explaining why scientists in her field regard race as a concept that is used for historical purposes but that does not have a basis in biology. 鈥淩ace鈥 is applied to relatively surface features of human beings, but can easily also encompass cultural factors common to some regions of the world. Dr. King stressed how both the concept and use of race evolved from those who were, in fact, motivated by racism.
Distorted Darwinism
In the latter part of the 19th century, specifically, a distorted application of Darwin鈥檚 theory of evolution 鈥 known as Social Darwinism 鈥 began to be used to 鈥渆xplain鈥 differences not only among individuals but, much more damagingly, between races.
Not surprisingly, the proponents of Social Darwinism 鈥 stemming largely from white, northern Europe 鈥 鈥渄iscovered鈥 that the 鈥渨hite race鈥 was the group that demonstrated the highest level (and potential for) human development, while all the 鈥渃olored races鈥 鈥 to varying degrees 鈥 fell short. This then became both an explanation and justification for the aggressive colonialism so much in vogue during that same period.
I just note that this work gives further saddening evidence of our seemingly very human tendency to want to group people into 鈥渦s鈥 and 鈥渢hem鈥 categories. I understand where this comes from 鈥 after all, our species has been around for well over one hundred thousand years; and our hominid, DNA- sharing line for much, much longer 鈥 and for most of the vast period we were a tribal people where it could be a matter of life and death if one mistook one of 鈥渢hem鈥 for one of 鈥渦s.鈥
Unfortunately, our ability to manipulate scientific discoveries to give us ever more fatal weapons has far outpaced our social evolution. Can we recognize 鈥 in time 鈥 that we are all truly in this together? For our children鈥檚 sake, I hope so!
The author is a retired statesman from Iowa, US. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.
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