A program of rehabilitation, should we ever be lucky enough to get one, a real one that is and not Starmer standing in front of a Union Jack, will need skilful politicians at the helm supported by our institutions. Unlike relatively homogeneous nations such as Japan or Poland, we have a multicultural mess that is both a spur to rehabilitate nationalism and an impediment to it.
There would be much squealing en route, but there are still enough of us left (for now) to weather the storm and prevail.
Globalisation is a pernicious and destructive force which if we let it will destroy us in the west. If we don’t fight for the nation state and the preservation of our culture and history then we will not survive as nations.
The link between national identity and democracy seems to be a central point and one that so few in conventional politics seem to grasp. Without a sense of who we are as a society it becomes almost impossible to have a meaningful conversation about what we want from our rulers. This is exacerbated when those who rule us seem determined that we ought to change how we think of ourselves - their disavowal of national traditions and attacks on national history being the form this most commonly takes in the West. Linking nationalism with Totalitarian so crudely in the current fashion hides a glaring historical irony: Totalitarian movements have often attacked nationalism in the past, precisely because they would wish to break the connection between mere parochial attachments to Nation and replace these with the 'deeper' identification with Party or Movement.
There are frequent instances on the radical Left frequently dismissing anti-colonial movements as petty bourgeois or the radical Right who looked to Race rather then Nation as fundamental source of solidarity. It is interesting to observe that Islamist would insist that their followers look the Ummah as a means of dissolving as local loyalties or traditions.
A program of rehabilitation, should we ever be lucky enough to get one, a real one that is and not Starmer standing in front of a Union Jack, will need skilful politicians at the helm supported by our institutions. Unlike relatively homogeneous nations such as Japan or Poland, we have a multicultural mess that is both a spur to rehabilitate nationalism and an impediment to it.
There would be much squealing en route, but there are still enough of us left (for now) to weather the storm and prevail.
Globalisation is a pernicious and destructive force which if we let it will destroy us in the west. If we don’t fight for the nation state and the preservation of our culture and history then we will not survive as nations.
The link between national identity and democracy seems to be a central point and one that so few in conventional politics seem to grasp. Without a sense of who we are as a society it becomes almost impossible to have a meaningful conversation about what we want from our rulers. This is exacerbated when those who rule us seem determined that we ought to change how we think of ourselves - their disavowal of national traditions and attacks on national history being the form this most commonly takes in the West. Linking nationalism with Totalitarian so crudely in the current fashion hides a glaring historical irony: Totalitarian movements have often attacked nationalism in the past, precisely because they would wish to break the connection between mere parochial attachments to Nation and replace these with the 'deeper' identification with Party or Movement.
There are frequent instances on the radical Left frequently dismissing anti-colonial movements as petty bourgeois or the radical Right who looked to Race rather then Nation as fundamental source of solidarity. It is interesting to observe that Islamist would insist that their followers look the Ummah as a means of dissolving as local loyalties or traditions.