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User:Antidiskriminator/Drafts of articles/Nationalistic myths

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The National myths (sometimes referred to as Nationalistic myths or Nationalist myths) are myths created and propagated by national intellectuals who use them as instrument of political mobilization on the basis of ethnicity.[1] Nationalist myths sometimes have a tendency to stimulate conflicts between the nations[2], to magnify distinctive characteristics of the national group and to overstate the threat to the nation posed by other groups propagating militant fulfilment of the their goals.[3]

Background

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Social background

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The concept of national identity is inescapably connected with myths.[4] Complex of myths are the core of ethnic identity.[5] Some scholars believe that national identities (equipped with invented histories) were constructed only after national movements and national ideologies emerged first.[6]

All modern national identities were preceded by nationalist movements.[7] Although the term "nation" was used in the Middle Ages, it had totally different meaning than in the age of nationalism, where it was linked to the efforts aimed to creation of the nation-states.[8]

Psychological background

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Besides their social background, nationalist myths have also a psychological explanation which is connected with nationalist myth of stable homeland community. The complexity of relations with the modern external world and incoherence of the inner psychological world can result with anxiety which is reduced by static self-labelling and self-construction and gaining an imaginary emotion of stability.[9]

Primary myths

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Two nationalism's primary myths are connected with beliefs in[10]:

  1. community's permanence (the myth of the eternal nation), based on its national character, territory and institutions and on its continuity across many generations, and
  2. community's common ancestry (myth of the common ancestry).

The nationalist myths portray the nation like sleeping and waiting to be awakened, but scholarly discourse avoid such image because national identity either exists or not and can not be asleep and awakened.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Safty, Adel (2002), Leadership and Conflict Resolution, USA: Universal publishers, p. 273, ISBN 1-58112-617-4, Shnirelman (1995) considers nationalist myths ... created by national intellectuals and propagated by the intelligentsia with the aim of using this myths as an instrument of ethno-political mobilization under interethnic conflicts. {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |lay-date= (help)
  2. ^ Edward Brown, Michael (1997). Nationalism and ethnic conflict. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. p. 67. ISBN 9780585358079. ... we do argue that tendency to breed conflicts is inherent to typical nationalist myths
  3. ^ Schnabel, Albrecht (2004). Conflict prevention from rhetoric to reality: Organizations and institutions. Lanham, Md: Lexington Books. p. 45, 46. ISBN 9780739107386. overemphasize the cultural and historical distinctiveness of the national group [and its territory], exaggerate the threat posed to the nation by other groups, ignore the degree to which the nation's own actions provoked such treats, and play down the cost of seeking national goals trough militant means. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Cameron, Keith (1999), National identity, Exeter, England: Intellect, p. 4, ISBN 9781871516050, OCLC 40798482, Myth is inextricably linked with the concept of national identity {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |lay-date= (help)
  5. ^ J. Kaufman, Stuart (2001), Modern hatreds : the symbolic politics of ethnic war, New York: Cornell University Press, p. 25, ISBN 9780801487361, OCLC 46590030, The core of the ethnic identity is the "myth-symbol complex" — the combination of myths,... {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |lay-date= (help)
  6. ^ Østergaard, Uffe (2000). Classical and modern social theory. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. p. 448. ISBN 9780631212881. Retrieved 8 September 2011. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Østergaard, Uffe (2000). Classical and modern social theory. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. p. 448. ISBN 9780631212881. Retrieved 8 September 2011. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Østergaard, Uffe (2000). Classical and modern social theory. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. p. 448. ISBN 9780631212881. Retrieved 8 September 2011. We can, for example, certainly encounter term "nation" in the Middle Ages, but the word meant something completely different than in the age of nationalism, where it is inextricably linked with the efforts to create an associated state. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Brown, David (2000), "Contemporary nationalism", Contemporary nationalism: civic, ethnocultural, and multicultural politics, London ; New York: Routledge, p. 24, ISBN 0203380258, OCLC 43286590 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |lay-date= (help)
  10. ^ Brown, David (2000), "Contemporary nationalism", Contemporary nationalism: civic, ethnocultural, and multicultural politics, London ; New York: Routledge, p. 23, 24, ISBN 0203380258, OCLC 43286590 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |lay-date= (help)
  11. ^ M. Danforth, Loring (1995). The Macedonian conflict : ethnic nationalism in a transnational world. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 15. .. nationalist myths of nation waiting, Sleeping Beauty like, to be awakened....In scholarly discourse this image should be avoided .. national identity is a matter of self-ascription, it either exists or it does not, it can not be asleep and then be awakened...

Further reading

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