Nationalism and National Identity: The Nation as an ‘Imagined Community’
By Jade Ashley Yong
Graphic by Jas Calcitas
Renowned political scientist Ben Anderson, reflecting on the rise of nationalism in the twentieth century, was the first to coin the description of a nation as an ‘imagined community’. But neither this article, nor Anderson, mean to argue that nations are unreal in that sense. As Anderson wrote, the nation is imagined ‘because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.’
It is precisely the imagined nature of this communion, the attachment to an invisible togetherness held by zealous patriots and ordinary citizens alike, that has inspired the very real threat of rising nationalist, exclusionary sentiments across many Western countries. Take the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for example, who earlier this year indicted refugees seeking UK asylum as ‘criminals’ for crossing the channel. Also take the increasingly open xenophobia and racism of far-right thinkers, like US Republican author Ann Coulter who fervently maintains an anti-immigration and ‘nativist’ stance.
Such conflict arises because inherent to the sense of belonging provided within the borders of a nation is the exclusiveness of the geographical limits they exert. Nationality is an abstract classification into which all of us involuntarily fall, but the rigid definitions of national identity arising from within these bordered limits have created rampant physical and social divisions. The implementation of cruel US-border policies, inflated deportations and immigrant raids under the Trump administration have geographically defined who to keep out, while his refusal to condemn white nationalism has normalized and heightened division amongst racial lines in the US.
In an increasingly diversifying world, divisions have manifested as social conflicts predicated upon disagreements about what defines the national identity felt to be at stake. American-ness, for example, is an identity being appropriated by far-right thinkers to defend US ruling-class (and white) domination and popular suppression in response to the threat of an increasingly politicized and aware American electorate:
Source: @LeftAccidental
Similarly in Britain, Johnson’s insistence upon ‘getting Brexit done’ has made him go as far as recently imposing legislations which breached international law, and critics warn of his appeal to nationalists: former Prime Minister and British Labour party Leader Gordon Brown stated his belief that Johnson would ‘play the nationalist card’ to stay in power.
Upon his victory Johnson weaponised nostalgia, saying ‘it’s time to take the chains off the giant, unshackled Britannia and let the Lion roar again!’ Such a populist message harks back upon a glorified history of Britain and is very much confined to rigid, conservative notions of what constitutes Britishness. The same use of nostalgia was seen in Trump’s cheap appropriation of former President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 speech in his call to ‘Make America Great Again.’
It is this romanticization of the past that has in large part amassed the popular support for these demagogues, and so the communion felt by their voters is as much a product of an idealistic imagination as the historical periods considered by some to have ever been great albeit their slavery, cold and civil wars, colonialism, imperialism… the list goes on.
Hence why it is all the more important now to scrutinise the stories we are fed about the ‘greatness’ of our nations and the pride we feel for our histories. Again this article goes far from suggesting that nations are unreal; Yuval Noah Hariri, author of the bestseller Sapiens, pointed out how it was the appearance of fiction which enabled such large numbers of strangers to successfully believe in and perpetuate common myths. We are therefore tethered to a sense of communion with the members of our own countries, a sense of communion which thrives precisely because it relies on the powers of our collective imagination.
Sources:
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Benedict Anderson, Verso Books. 1980.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind. Yuval Noah Harari, Penguin Random House. 2011.
What is a Nativist? And is Donald Trump One? Uri Friedman, The Atlantic. April 11 2017.
Trump’s attacks on the legal immigration system explained. Peniel Ibe, American Friends Service Community. April 23 2020.
Why Can’t He Just Say It? Emma Green, The Atlantic. September 30 2020.
Trump confesses to voter suppression. Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post. August 13 2020.
Boris Johnson’s Plan to ‘Get Brexit Done’ and ‘Hang the Consequences’. Owen Matthews, Foreign Policy. September 10 2020.
Boris Johnson Accused of Scapegoating Migrants over Channel Comments. Jamie Grierson and Dan Sabbagh, The Guardian. August 10 2020.
Boris Johnson Will ‘Play the Nationalist Card’ to Stay in Power, Gordon Brown Warns. Hardeep Matharu, Byline Times. January 21 2020.
Will the Sun Set on the Boris Empire? Edoardo Campanella, Foreign Policy. July 23 2019.