The End of Nations
12 03 10 - 09:08The French philosopher Ernest Renan once defined a nation as ''a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbors.''
Emma Goldman once stated: "Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better, grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.
The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, with the result that from early infancy the mind of the child is provided with blood-curdling stories about the Germans, the French, the Italians, Russians, etc. When the child has reached manhood he is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord himself to defend his country against the attack or invasion of any foreigner."
History abounds with examples which excoriate the fallacy of nationalism, exposing it for the odious, rancorous lie which it demonstrably, undeniably is. Let us take for our pertinent example the "nation" of Spain. The "nation" of Spain is said to occupy about 4/5ths of the Iberian Penninsula, at the terminus of western Europe. Framed on the east by the Pyranees mountains, the land mass is characterized by plains and hills. It has been inhabited by a variety of people throughout history. Some of the earliest evidence of modern human habitation of Europe is found in Spain, as well as numerous pre-human (Neanderthal) sites. The region is home to the Basque language, which is one of the oldest languages on earth, even predating the expansion of the Indo-European language groups into western europe, and has no surviving relatives. The region was a critical battleground for the conflict between the Roman and Cartheginian empires, eventually becoming a Roman province. It is argued that Castilian Spanish (notably argued mostly by Castilians) is the closest surviving relative of the original Roman Latin. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the region existed as a series of independant, occaisionally warring provinces, until it was conquered by the Moors. The Moors, a group of moslims from northern Africa, crossed the straits of Gibraltar, bringing within them an enduring peace and an enlightened society, which stood for nearly 800 years like a beacon of civilization and prosperity in contrast to the barbarism of medieval Europe. The Moors were eventually expelled by a genocidal group of Christian Zealots from the region of Castille, who through military campaigns and inquisitions, were able to remove the Moors from Spain, leaving the areas largely depopulated by virtue of expulsion or slaughter. The small population of Christian Spain was insufficient to fill the void of the now empty lands, so the monarchy opened the lands up for settlement by the burgeoning population of France. A massive influx of French people left a permanent mark on the landscape, and also the Spanish Language, both of which are readily observable to this very day. As with many feudal societies, Spain became heavily provincial; people from Asturias were Asturian first, Spanish second; Aragonese were Aragonese, Castillians were Castillians. Being Spanish was really only useful for the purposes of the monarchy and Church, and the dissimilarities culturally and linguistically between the provinces are still evident, and contentious, to this day. Rather than one nation, it was a loose collection of people and provinces which were not only distinct but also often at odds with one another, occasionally identifying as Spanish for convenience and military or political expediency.
During the 1930's, when the Fascists, or Nationalists as they preferred to call themselves, endevored to overthrow the rule of the people of Spain, they claimed to fight for "Hispanitud", or "Spanishness". The Fascists utilized a number of historical comparisons in their propaganda; especially favored was the idea that they were going to "re-conquer" Spain from the forces of liberalism and democracy, as the Castillians had done when they expelled the Moors (Ironically, the vast majority of Nationalist troops were conscripts from Morocco, decendents of the Moors). But was it Castillian Spanishness? Or Aragonese Spanishness? It couldn't have been the Spanishness of the French settlers, and certainly wasn't the Spanishness of the Moors, who controlled Spain for longer than the Spanish; nor was it the Spanishness of the Romans or Cartheginians, nor the Basques nor the Gauls nor the Neanderthals. In reality, the Spanishness they proffered was an elaborate series of bland, chauvunistic euphamisms for exactly nothing. There is no historical "Spanishness", and even today there is still none. The fascists sought to create a myth of national purity, because doing so allowed them to put themselves in a position whereby they were the sole judges of that supposed purity. Acting as though they were the divinely-appointed guardians of this ridiculous nationalist mendacity, they could justify the mass slaughter of whomsoever they saw fit, for political expedience. History falls to the wayside when the powerful have a mythology to support their agenda, and no matter how ridiculous that myth may be, no matter how demonstrably false, the powerful will stop at nothing to make sure that myth goes unquestioned.
The story of Spain is the same for all nations, though of course the anecdotal information is different. The nation is a myth; a powerful, destructive myth, which lays waste to the earth and makes slaves of its people. Nations require for their sustenance the exploitation and domination of the people contained within them; the cruelty engendered in this system naturally creates a high degree of instability and resentment among the exploited. The mythology of a nation is critical to its ruling class, because beyond the force of violence of deprivation, the ruling class has else nothing by which to justify their domination of the proliteriat. People believe myths, people love myths. We incoroporate these myths, taught to us since birth, into our psyches and define ourselves by them. The ruling class who are served by these myths also retain the power to alter them to fit their political, economic, or military schemes and designs. The utility for the ruling class of national myths cannot be overstated, because people will work for myths, people will fight for myths, people will die for myths. And the ruling class is always very interested in making sure that they can get people to work for them, to fight for them, and to die for them. The nationalist myth is the only distinction between the governments today and the tyrants of history. The difference between Ghengis Khan and Benyamin Netanyahu is that Netanyahu wants to make sure that your neighbors believe his lies before his troops crush you and your family. At least the Mongols were honest in their conquests: they didn't claim to fight for some purpoted "mongolianness" or some ridiculous national myth that their god chose them to be the rulers of the world. When the Mongols destroyed your irrigation systems and burned your orhcards and razed your village, they didn't try to enforce some circuitous logic to make the victim into the villain. They wanted plunder, they wanted power; in this they were no different than the plutarchs and tyrants who rule our world today.
The plain fact is that nations technically, literally do not exist. They aren't real in any sense of the word. Go to the borders of a country, and look to the ground. You will find no dividing line, though one may be supposed to be present. Perhaps you will find a wall, or a some natural barrier; but the land on either side of the wall will be roughly the same, and the mountains and rivers of this world far predate mankind and his petty machinations. Where is this nation which delineates these territories? The nation is not the wall: the wall is merely artifice, a stacking of meaningless rubble. Perhaps the nation can be found in its documents? But these are merely parchement and ink, having no power beyond any other piece of paper. Is the nation the man in the uniform with his weapons, or the politician and his lies? No, for these are merely men, fallible and mortal as any other.
The nation is an elaborate fantasy which lives only in the imaginations of people. Though it may build edifices of marble or gold, though it may wage wars and issue decrees and cause incalculable suffering and destruction, these things are not themselves the stuff of nations. They are the affects of nations. A nation is nothing, literally nothing, but a frankenstein construct of a myriad of lies and myths with one unifying purpose: to make certain that the downtrodden and exploited remain so, and to make sure that those who have power keep that power. And though both king and peasant may be made to believe the same myth, for that the myth is no more true.
The most potent weapon against the nation is simple disbelief. Since it lives only in the minds of people, all that is needed to destroy any nation is to deny it it's feeding grounds. To change the minds of men can be simpler than it may seem, and once a person has seen the fallacy for what it is, they can never return to belief. Starve the nation of minds, and it will fall more easily than a house of cards.
We are already free. The people are inhibited only by the lies they believe; lies that they are powerless, lies that they are inferior, lies that they need leaders, lies that evil is the condition of man. The yoke of opression, the chains which bind us to tyranny and exploitation, have only the wieght which the individual gives to them. Their strength exists only to the extent that an individual may be made to identify with them, to accept them. Even the whip of governmental reproach and reaction which scourges the flesh of free people is powerless in the shining light of undeniable truth. They can steal our lands, burn our works, and take from us our very lives. But they cannot, for all of their lies and all of their cruelty, deprive us of our convictions, and no amount of violence or coercion is sufficient to subjugate once more a mind which has been liberated by truth.
We've already won, comrades. Let's go out into the world and enjoy our victory. Spread the word. Sing it loud, sing it proud. Shout it, scream it, print it, post it; just don't wait for it.
Dan
