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This article does appear to conclude many points on the premise of nationalism and it’s varied outcomes. Nationalism has only existed for not much more than 200

This article does appear to conclude many points on the premise of nationalism and it’s varied outcomes. Nationalism has only existed for not much more than 200 years which is not very long at all compared to all of human history. In the USA we are given this notion that these ideas are a solid foundation but I tend to think that America is very young and most national concepts are still very experimental. It will take much more time to figure out what is really going on here, what the goal is, and how to cope with it all. That may be the cause of a great war just a worldwide upheaval of imposed thought much like the Napoleonic era where the concept of monarchies was challenged again and again. In the transition from Rome to the Byzantine empire it seems religious and cultural freedoms were challenged during that period. If we all woke up one day and realized something very ingrained in our world is wrong then change would take place hell or high water. Much of the intrinsic message of nationalism is a dissolution of multiculturalism refining it into a set of rules which cannot be argued with by literally drawing lines in the sand. The only thing that used to matter was the town a person was from (e.g. last names with the name of that town or region). Today we create so many large homogeneous groups based on borders the rationality of favoritism and hatred becomes absurd. Maybe we are at the end of this serving much of a purpose after all so it’s time for a much needed review complete with unresolved baggage from an earlier time. I would like to get off at the closest stop before things get too weird personally.

joey-bob 8y ago
I can't read Greek or Latin so I don't have access to the primary sources, but it is my understanding that nationalism was a prevalent part of political life in antiquity, particularly from the death of Alexander through to the end of the Roman empire, and reemerged in Europe around the same time as absolutism. In many ways, the United States, and to a larger extent the West, has significantly more in common with the late roman republic than it does with any point in it's own modern history.
- zanny 8y ago
  Almost all great empires to some degree planted the roots of their legitimacy of conquest in their own self superiority. Nationalism is as old as the first man who thought some other culture as "uncivilized". Like how, say, the Romans called all the European peoples that weren't Roman barbarians.

joey-bob 8y ago

I can't read Greek or Latin so I don't have access to the primary sources, but it is my understanding that nationalism was a prevalent part of political life in antiquity, particularly from the death of Alexander through to the end of the Roman empire, and reemerged in Europe around the same time as absolutism. In many ways, the United States, and to a larger extent the West, has significantly more in common with the late roman republic than it does with any point in it's own modern history.

zanny 8y ago
Almost all great empires to some degree planted the roots of their legitimacy of conquest in their own self superiority. Nationalism is as old as the first man who thought some other culture as "uncivilized". Like how, say, the Romans called all the European peoples that weren't Roman barbarians.