I’ve been thinking a lot about a lecture we had with Professor Kubiak a couple days ago, about nationality and ethnicity as “imagined” communities that link people who don’t really know each other. It’s always in the back of my mind as I try to process this new society and culture in which I’ve suddenly found myself. What does it mean for something to be “real” versus “imagined,” anyway? All identities are “created,” in a sense, but does that necessarily mean they are as malleable as social theory would have us believe?
So how would I answer that question now? First of all, I think I’d probably step away from trying to decide whether or not national identity is “real” or “imagined” in any sort of pejorative sense- I now understand that national histories are mythologized in order to give people a shared sense of belonging, and symbols like flags and anthems are used to evoke supposed shared national values and ideals- all of this adds up to the construction of national identity. “Real” or “imagined” isn’t really the right way to describe it, national identity, or the perception of a shared history, plays an undeniable role in the way politics and society function in any given situation, a role that cannot be ignored or easily replaced. Rogers Brubaker may bemoan the use of national identifiers such as “Poles” and “Ukrainians” in scholarship and the news media, and he may be right about the limits they place on our capacity to “think outside the nation-state,” but when you get down to the level of how regular people perceive themselves and the world around them, national identity is real, no matter how visibly constructed. Case in point: I spent the weekend with a friend from Krakow at his family’s country house outside the city, and one of the first questions his mother asked me was what kind of conceptions I had about Poles before coming to Poland (honestly, I didn’t know enough to really have any), what were my impressions of the national culture, the overall tone of society? What did I think about the role of the Catholic Church? My friend’s mother (and he himself) are far from nationalistic (or religious, for that matter), and I don’t think her questions reflected any deep-seeded belief in the essential character of Poles as such, but the fact that she expected me to have reflected on Polish society in a national context is a testament to the enduring power of the concept of national identity.
On the other hand, while I have come to the conclusion that national identity is undeniable and influential, I am really glad I’ve had the opportunity to learn about it as a constructed notion, rather than an “essential” or immutable element of our DNA or something. It’s amazing the way that you internalize the idea that being “Irish” or “German” has some sort of natural or organic impact on your personality or behavior when you’re told over and over again as a child that “you are Polish” or “you are Italian.” The gradual erosion of that type of thinking has really allowed me to see projects like the European Union in a new light. While at first I was somewhat skeptical and worried that all of the unique national cultures of Europe would be somehow endangered by the emergence of a larger, European identity, now I understand that these traditions and ways of life are not fixed and unchangeable elements of “being French” or “being British,” but constructed ways of bringing together disparate groups of individuals and forming an imagined bond for the purpose of political stability and cultural harmony. The European Union is just a method for achieving this goal on a bigger scale, and while I think that national identity and state sovereignty aren’t going away any time soon, I no longer fear the erosion of national individuality at the hands of European integration. This whole experience has had the gradual effect of significantly diminishing the importance of national borders in my way of thinking about the world. Before, I had trouble understanding why some of my professors at Kenyon chose to devote their entire careers to studying political developments in nations an ocean away, but now I see how interconnected these developments really are, and how much more so they are becoming as the world becomes more politically, economically, and socially connected. I have a much clearer understanding of the elements of humanity that supercede notions of national identity- ideas like universal human rights, political freedoms, and the individual pursuit of happiness. Maybe these ideas are just the latest constructivist tactics for creating an “imagined world community” of some kind, but to me that sounds like the best bet for a peaceful and prosperous world, so I’m willing to buy in to them.
