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mpoe · 4014 days ago · link · · parent · post: Azar Gat, “Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism”
Thanks for your good comments. I agree with most of them. It think the think Gat is trying to say--and I agree completely here--is that the propensity to what might be called generic nationalism is not out there but in us. The political preference for people who look and act like "us" has appeared countless times and in countless places independently. Unlike, say Communism, it did not spread from a single place and time. Like the idea of "family," "friend, or "enemy" it is common enough to be a human universal. Of course it appears in various guises and is stronger or weaker at different times. But it is almost always there. That isn't to say it won't go away--it's just not likely to very soon.