Us and Them
Jerry Z. Muller
From Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008

Summary: Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. But in fact, it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit, it is galvanized by modernization, and in one form or another, it will drive global politics for generations to come. Once ethnic nationalism has captured the imagination of groups in a multiethnic society, ethnic disaggregation or partition is often the least bad answer.

JERRY Z. MULLER is Professor of History at the Catholic University of America. His most recent book is The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought.

Much more at: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080301faessay87203/jerry-z-muller/us-and-them.html

Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

I haven't read the whole article, just the first page but as I'm teaching some aspects of Scottish history at the moment, it seems to me that Scotland is a clear counter example. Scotland gave up its national sovereignty in 1707 for economic advantages by uniting with England. The consequence was a resurgence of Scottish culture as a result of the economic development and a very big influence of Scotland throughout the British Empire.
So my question is whether cultural power is enhanced or diminished by narrowing down one's cultural identity by drawing clear political boundaries around it.

Of course, Scotland is the process of loosening its ties with England so perhaps the situation is quite different today.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I went over the article several times. I am still not sure where he author wants to make the point. It could be those are excerpts from his book and there are certain transitions missing between the paragraphs.

Looking at the author I noticed he wrote a few books, one with a title I find more interesting than the others ... I'll have to pull it up.

I don't think there is an ultimate condition of being in ethnic-assimilation, there will always be a thing like "ethno-nationalism".
People consider their differences over their similarities.

What sprung to mind immediately, was Eugenics . Now, I am not an expert on Eugenics Philosophy, but I do think there is a very direct relationship to ethno-nationalism.

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There is also a paragraph within the article referenced to the State of Israel:

This story is widely believed by educated Europeans and even more so, perhaps, by educated Americans. Recently, for example, in the course of arguing that Israel ought to give up its claim to be a Jewish state and dissolve itself into some sort of binational entity with the Palestinians, the prominent historian Tony Judt informed the readers of The New York Review of Books that "the problem with Israel ... [is that] it has imported a characteristically late-nineteenth-century separatist project into a world that has moved on, a world of individual rights, open frontiers, and international law. The very idea of a 'Jewish state' ... is an anachronism."


With that, I know I will again draw the typical kind of fire.
In tone and text of this paragraph, I would very much concur.

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I also thought the page transitions in the article didn't make a lot of sense. Maybe there's a linking error of some kind.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I think the article is a compilation of excerpts from different chapters of the his book.

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I read some of it, pretty interesting. I like the part about Americans belittling the role of ethnic nationalism. Here we don't have that. Our experiment seems to be working pretty well.

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1984 300TD

Yes.

Ethnic nationalism works best when oppressed. It fails when not oppressed. Similar to religion.

I don't suppose you think Americans live in an oppressed fashion ...

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