National Identity Construction in Everyday Life - Essay Example

How Is National Identity Constructed in Everyday Life? by “Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it....” George Bernard Shaw (Shaw 2015) We are going to discuss the development and formation of a national identity during everyday life of a person. National identity is a concept or in other words a condition of a person and his way of thinking according to his relation to the country with which this person feels connected most. National identity not necessarily depends on blood ties, place of birth or both of them. It is a concept which lies in the sphere of ideology and psychology and creates a barrier between one person’s national identity and other national identities (Bloom 1993). The reasons for this difference are many and we will pay attention to them lately. First of all it is necessary for us to make clear the definition of our subject and its obvious connection with day-to-day life of an individual. In other words it is significant for our study to systematize our definition of a national identity and parts from which it consists. National identity consists of and develops with a help of almost everything that surrounds person during his or her daily activities. Of course we are going to talk about this in general and exclusions like in cases of immigration or living in exile are not among the topics of our research. Every day person deals with problems and issues that guarantee this person’s further existence. All people except maybe some monks in mountains identify themselves with and depend on the country in which they live. These national borders do not always remain final and non-arguable but in most cases for now countries all around the world stay in more or less stable condition. This allows us to talk about formed national identity except maybe for those people who live in regions like Middle East or post-Soviet Union regions where nationality is not formed at all or not formed well. Everyday life consists of our co-existing with all kinds of political, social, cultural, religious and other ideological and traditional ideas and concepts. I suggest to pay each of them attention which they deserve as parts of a basis of our question. Geographical position and ethnic roots predispose the origin of nations. After people became a group the psychological and ideological formation of an identity has been developing and evolving. So the location acts as a starting point for the further establishment of a national character and this evolution of a savage into a civilized citizen is influenced by different factors (Henslin, 2011). Politics and political consciousness of an individual are one of the most important details in the mechanism of forming national identity. People express their political views not only once in a couple years during elections. For some serving political interests of their country is itself their daily life (for example soldiers in an army or officials). National identity and patriotism in a lot of ways and in most cases has a mutual interconnection with the governmental policy and the whole course of nation. All this connects in a way to give country ability to move forward towards progress and prosperity or in exact opposite cases, unfortunately, pushes nations into the pit of civil confrontations and other incredible catastrophes examples of which we can see in history. People create their nation and nation creates people. Politics is only a tool with which such mutual activity becomes possible (Anderson 1991). In everyday life a person can see political battles on TV or read about them in newspaper because politics affect our life each and every second. The increase of taxes or gas prices influences the financial condition. Politics decide whether to connect with international organizations or not. Examples of this dependence on each other are many. The most general idea of the connection between politics and formation of a national identity lies in the fact they create each other (Smith, 1991). Of course exclusions can be seen in low-developed countries of Africa where people’s ability to vote is a very rare thing and the value of this vote is very insignificant because of the absence of political awareness. But countries of Africa are popular for their incredible lack of any kind of national identity. Culture is what unites people and makes each individual proud of his place in the nation. Cultural heritage and its influence on all other parts of national and individual activities are one of the most significant pieces of a national identity. Culture influences people’s daily life in a lot of ways. Almost all people if they don’t live in woods like hermits watch TV, listen to music, go to the cinema or theatre and by this people become more proud of the achievements of their compatriots because most things presented in culture of countries are made by the representatives of these countries. It is well known that national culture moves towards progress with the help of the minds of best citizens. It is also obvious that not always such citizens like or live in the country to which they belong by blood right or by the birthright and in many cases very talented and incredibly honorable people were put in a position of exiles. Nevertheless patriotic feelings and the concept of national identity relies mostly on such creative and enlighted artistic individuals. These people somehow represent the times and conditions in which they live and by this show everyone else where to go, what to do and how to do it (Said, 1993). The connection between the formation of national identity and cultural heritage of nation represented in a fact that all of them are interconnected equally and each part of this equation cannot exist without other parts (Hall 1996). African countries don’t have any progress in culture as well as in the politics and with this example we can see that the absence of one part makes all machine work in a wrong way or doesn’t work at all. Culture always moves progress and progress moves nation which helps to provide national prestige and the authority of patriotic movements. Even if person is not interested in culture at all and even science is not among his interests he will nevertheless feel the influence of these fields of knowledge. While reading history we can clearly see that science and culture were always interconnected and they together pushed civilization progress forward (Decker et al., 2004). Another necessary aspect of a culture attention to which should be paid separately is language. National language is obviously used in everyday life. The idea of a language has a very significant place among cultural treasures and this cannot be denied. Language as a part of culture influences small and big pieces of our life with no difference according to place, time or person. This of course is applied to those countries which are formed and exist in their final condition. Example of power of language we can see in the Romani language of the gypsies. It is incredible that despite the fact that these people don’t have their own country with borders and nationality their existence nevertheless remains stable during centuries (Acton, Mundy 1997). We can clearly state that language is more important for the formation of national identity than the presence of country borders and political recognition. Language unites people because they use it always and everywhere. When language is formed it provides beneficial atmosphere for the cultural and scientific growth. It is language that divides and creates borders between geographical regions and between people. Each language is like a mark on a person that stays with this person forever and even if individual knows many more other languages this person however thinks in one and only language and this language is that one that is his most favorite, comfortable and on which this person can count despite any circumstances (Bloom, 2013). Next we proceed to the necessary presence of a science and some of its major parts for the formation of a national identity. Science and scientific researches that lead to great and spectacular discoveries affect daily lives of people. There are many examples of this influence. Among most major and quickly remembered are automobiles, television, telephone but of course electricity that provided the possibility of existence of all of the mentioned inventions. Internet and penicillin, brain surgery and DNA. These discoveries and inventions were made by people who belonged to most progressive and prosperous countries and in fact such inventions and their creators glorified their countries by belonging to them. National identity reflects national ideas as well as national prestige and authority. Authority of country makes patriotism seem more desirable. Who wants to stick to the bad pack? Honorable nation makes honorable citizens and this connection is mutual because national honor is built with help of those who are honorable themselves. Scientific inventions nowadays are heritage of general public and are free to use for everybody despite any national differences. But for the first times of some of the inventions their most active usage was the prerogative of those countries in which such inventions or discoveries have been made (Decker & Ladikas, 2004). Historian writer Anthony D. Smith says that the role of ethnical roots that unite people in nation and form national identities depends greatly on three factors which are organized: religion, state-making, and warfare (Smith, 1991). Warfare as a tool for creating patriotic moods in the society is a well-developed strategy which can’t be denied. Remember Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Hitler – their main tool for creating nation and proud national spirit was warfare. State-making affects existence of national spirit as well and not any less. As an example we can use chaotic civil wars in XVI century France between Huguenots and Catholics or conflict between Guelfs and Ghibellines in the Middle Age Italy. In those dark and violent times modern self-sufficient nations were formed and on an example of Italy we can see that the ruling regime affects greatly the formation of entity of the national identity because it creates borders and establish the laws. State-making also creates ideologies. As for religion I would like to discuss it in a more detailed and appropriate way. “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people” (Marx, 1843). This quotation by Karl Marx is very famous and very accurate. The role of religion nowadays is hundred times less significant than couple of centuries before. Nevertheless religion serves as one of the basic fundaments of national identity. A lot of people identify themselves and it is affordable to say even exist as a synthesis of traditions, cultural heritage, historical facts etc. Religion in past served as a tool both for the separation and association of people. Nowadays in the world with freedom of thinking and self-expressing each person can choose what to believe or to believe or not at all. But still a lot of people, especially in countries like Italy (which in past suffered a lot due to the vain ambitions of Popes), Spain or Russia exist as humble servants of their religions. If we take Russia the situation there is truly horrible and somehow reminds of Dark Times of the Middle Ages and later civil confrontations due to obscurantism and bigotry. Religion still serves as a tool for the government to rule over the minds of people because religious association is as mighty and strong as association by the place, language, similar history etc. Therefore as a tool of those who are at power religion forms and develops the way people think and relate their identity to the national situation. Russia uses Orthodoxy mainly to satisfy elder people but it is a fact that Russian government also uses some of religious bigots as a force of power to help their law enforcement structures. Such lunatics name themselves Cossacks (which has absolutely nothing to do with the Cossacks from history of the past) and are absolutely under the full influence of the ruling regime. The national identity of such people are formed with a huge support of religion because they use Christian crosses as their symbols and all in them shows foolish and stereotyped religious intolerance towards feminism, homosexuals, and even other races and nations. Those of you who heard about the case of Pussy Riot should know that Cossacks once beaten them up with lashes in front of the TV cameras (Gessen, 2014). But we are talking about everyday life and not about going to church on Sundays and holidays. That means that Muslims and Middle East will be more acceptable and far better choice for the example of correlation between religion and national identity. This region except some more or less progressive countries like Jordan or Israel is famous for its incredible and shocking religious eagerness. Terrorist attacks all across the world which are well known prove that Islam connects Muslim people more than any national borders, political concepts and ideologies. The significance and unimaginable importance of religion can be seen during the everyday life of Arab people. If we take for example Syria we will surely see that Civil War there between government’s official military forces and rebels is in fact a religious war between Alawits (minority supported and represented by government) on one side and Shias (majority of population represented by rebel’s front) on the other side (Cooper, 2015). So statements about battle for freedom and liberty are in fact just a cascade which hides religious war in best traditions of European confrontations between Protestants and Catholics. To summarize the effect of religion on the formation of national identity it will be fair to say based on example of Middle East that it is religion that has a great part on a formation of individual’s thinking. Religion still pushes people towards fighting, wars, creating new countries, and making new national ideologies. Syria is just one example but there are many others and even without the war religion in countries like Iran is used as mechanism of influence on the personal identity and transformation it in a national identity. For now we know what national identity is and how it is influenced by different factors with which people deal every day of their existence. Our next step will be to present examples of formed national identities. For these examples it is interesting to choose the United States of America, Great Britain and Nazi Germany because of their popularity and controversy. USA is popular in the whole world for its patriotic ambitions and the spirit of national unity. This fact is more impressive if we remember that America was created by immigrants and its progress into the leading nation is an achievement of people from all around the world. A lot was said about what it is to be American and how Americans are the best citizens in the greatest country of the world. The reason of so popular kind of inherent patriotism of Americans lies in the fact that USA needed patriotic ideas more than any other country because of the immigrants from different parts of the world. If not for the strong idea of nationality America would fall apart and eventually consisted of numerous republics like in the case of Italian factionalism. The idea of truly American patriot was supported by all necessary means – united effort to explore and use whole continent (so called Manifest Destiny), struggle against British colonial oppression, cultural independence despite the absence of original national language and a lot of other things. The situation with the formation of American national identity is in some way similar to the greatest and most glorified period of Roman Empire or Roman Republic. Romans owned a lot of different territories with all kind of miscellaneous ideologies, religions, ethnicities, languages etc. (Mommsen,1871). Among such numerous differences it is hard at first to see what was the reason, idea or belief that keeps such magnificent machine altogether. In Rome it was first of all military might which presented and supported honor to be a Roman as well as the superiority and intelligence of Roman government in comparison with other retarded political systems (Gibbon 1825). As for America just these things which are also presented are not enough and the core of national American identity shows itself in a more abstract and psychological way. Sociologist Robin Williams named 10 core values that in his opinion unite Americans despite all the differences and create national American identity: Achievement and success Individualism Hard work Efficiency and practicality Science and technology Material comfort Freedom Democracy Equality Group superiority (Henslin, 2011). Despite the fact that some values contradict with others overall it is a great portrait of an average American with which I happily agree. Everyday American people due to their self- made progress have the possibility to achieve such criteria and live according to the portrait of an ideal national identity which not only benefits themselves but moves country further and by this make national identity more desirable and honorable (Latchaw, 2009). That is why so much was said about the American Dream and that is why so many immigrants even from the most distant regions call themselves Americans and are proud of it. In some way it is a cosmopolitanism but in one country. Great Britain is not as interesting example as British Empire. It is well known that in some period almost half of the world submitted to the British Crown. We can surely say that it is such periods of incredible growth and prosperity that form national identity and what we can see nowadays is just an echo, a shadow of a former supremacy and if not for this supremacy situation nowadays would easily be different. As I said earlier military success, cultural and technological progress make and form national prestige on the basis of which national identity is created. I also can say that in some way British oppression of Ireland is what helped to create Ireland. Remembering George Orwell’s 1984 we can state that the vision or even illusion of an enemy helps to unite people together in an effort to fight real or fictive enemy (Orwell 1949). During the Cold War western people lived their everyday life with the fear of being bombed with nuclear warheads and this fear of red aggression put people together as well as Russian people’s national identity was formed with hate towards capitalism. Americans created their national identity almost without war as well as British. Wars against Indians, native Africans or primitive Hindu people don’t count because it is not a fair play, it is an annihilation and simple conquering. War as a tool of creating original and self-sufficient national identity has a great example in Nazi Germany. Average Nazi from all the perspectives was not an average Austria-Hungary citizen or similar to Prussian member of society. Here we once again on an example of Empires consisted of mixed ethnicities see the formation of original national identity. Nazis proclaimed their superiority and by this (in addition to military might and perfect organizational skills) very quickly created national identity which not only worked right but also agreed to fight all the other world to prove that only their identity is right and all the others are wrong. On this example we see clearly how all mentioned above factors accurately distinguished “we” and “they” (Amderson, 1991). You may ask why in my work I did not even once touched the concept of nationalism and talked only about patriotism as a reflection of national identity. That is because I don’t think highly of nationalism and my ideas are best expressed in a following saying: “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” Charles de Gaulle (Ledwidge 1982). So national identity is a complex mechanism which is affected by different factors every day. People form their national views and relate their existence with the existence of nation that surrounds them. Metaphorically speaking identity is a cell and the nation is an organism. Both nation and a national identity depend on each other and co-exist daily all the rime in all activities. By this cooperation nation creates countries and separate from other nations and countries. Nevertheless it is necessary to remember that most significant and strong borders are not on the map but inside human minds. Bibliography Acton, T. A., Mundy, G. (1997) Romani Culture and Gypsy Identity. London: University of Hertfordshire Press Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso Bloom, W. (1993) - Personal Identity, National Identity and International Relations. London: Cambridge University Press Cooper, T. 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(2015) The Collected Works of Bernard Shaw: The Complete Works. London: PergamonMedia Smith, A. (1991) - National Identity. New York: University of Nevada Press Read More