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People are amazing. Working together as
part of social groups, human beings have
created an enormously dynamic connected
world. We've become the species that has
been most successful on this planet. And
we do so because we cooperate. We work
within societies.
However, you may have noticed. We live
in a world full of conflict. We live in
a world which has a depleted
environment. We have a world of
increasing inequality
and millions of people migrating to try
and find a better life.
Now, the political environment which
this all takes place in is what we call
nationalism. We all live in these things
we call nations which creates a sense of
us and them. We live within borders and
we have a sense of self-interest and we
are told we need armies to protect us
through all of this. I want to ask a
tricky question. I want to ask is
nationalism good for you and is
nationalism good for this world? Now I'm
a social anthropologist. What we do is
we look at how society works. We look at
social cohesion. Why is it you feel
you're part of one group and not another
sort of group? And of course, if we're
interested in social cohesion and
groups, we are inevitably also
interested in conflict.
Now, the most amazing groups in a way
are nations. These are groups of
millions of people who all feel that
they're in some way the same. So it's
important that we critically understand
how nations work and what their impact
is. So firstly, I'm probably going to
surprise some of you with some
something. You may think that your
nation is hundreds and hundreds of years
old. I have to tell you that's almost
certainly wrong.
uh human beings through their existence
have lived in a whole range of different
sorts of political systems. But broadly
speaking, the group that was most
important to you would have been your
kith and your kin, the family you were
born into, your clan or your lineage.
Now, as societies got more complex and
you got hierarchies um with with leaders
and monarchies, uh society formed
through what we call the state. But
through most of that history, your kith
and your kin, your family would still
have been the most important group in
your life. They would have placed you in
the society that you're in. you would
have had rituals and symbols, religion
and myth that would have given you a
form of social cohesion.
Social and political scientists broadly
agree that the modern nation only really
comes in um and around the 19th and into
the 20th centuries. That's a sort of a
populist ethnational
group. This is after the reformation and
the enlightenment, industrialization,
urbanization, democratization and the
tensions between social classes that we
start to develop a sort of large
cohesive
sort of compliant social group. And this
may sound strange, but nations are
pretty much all the same. They're a
group of people who claim a particular
territory and they have a history that
legitimizes that with a narrative of
continuity over time, usually connected
to a language or religion or some
element of their social identity.
And that that history usually contains
stories of suffering particularly around
battles and wars and is full of heroes
and martyrs that the stories are told
of. And then you build statues to all
the heroes and martyrs and you come up
with flags and you have anthems. And
then you have playwrights and actors and
musicians who all start to present
emotionally how that nation hangs
together.
Um and and the people in that nation are
usually told and think that somehow they
are braver or better than other nations
and then occasionally you have a leader
who gets up and tries to persuade you
that they are the greatest nation. Okay.
And part of that you stereotype all of
your neighbors nations, right? We're all
very familiar with that sort of thing.
And that comes about because of what we
sometimes call everyday nationalism. How
do you become
part of these identities? You're sort of
born into it. You're given a name. All
around you are lots of street names and
and and building names which all connect
you to this history. You end up going to
school when you're taught a particular
history. And what's more, you're told
it's your history, right? And then there
are commemorations. There are museums
which will tell you about what your
history is. There's memorials. There's
memorial days. All right? But more than
that, there's events in your life. The
sporting events where you remember the
great wins or the great losses that your
nation has. And there are dramas on the
TV when all of this is explained to you.
And that's because the nation is
reproduced in our everyday life. Or to
put in another way, the nation is a
social construction.
So that your sense of self is intimately
linked to the group and it's emotionally
linked. It's been part of your life.
It's been part of your family's life.
It's part of your family's history. So
in that way, the idea of the nation is
linked to something which is very close
to you. And that will make people do
inspiring things, amazing things. It
makes people go and die in wars for this
huge large groups. That's actually
really quite an extraordinary thing to
think about. It's made people fight in
revolutions. This emotionalfilled idea
has also helped us build and define
rights for citizens and make citizens
feel protected so that the well-being of
the individual appears to be linked to
the well well-being of this large social
group. And I tell you who knows how this
work. Politicians know how this work.
Because when they want to get elected,
they will stand by the flag and they
will tell you that they best represent
your nation and they will make your
nation great again.
But there's another story to be told
about nations and nationalism.
The violence of the 19th and 20th
century saw millions and millions of
poor people die in the name of defending
their nation.
Ideas of superiority around race and
gender were built into nationalism and
empire.
European empires stormed across the
globe, invading other places and spaces.
And in fact oppos often inventing
new countries and often inventing new
countries we'd have complicated
ethnicities in which were almost
inevitably going to end in many of the
civil wars that we see today. Those
countries were exploit exploited um in
forms of extraction so that the empires
could survive. That is a complicated and
difficult world. So how do we remember
that history? Well, ironically,
we sort of remember the wars of that
time in a heroic sort of way. We put up
memorials and commemorate our people
that have died for that empire.
All right? We we we thank our
forefathers for the work that they have
done. This I suggest you is the politics
of the dead. We don't actually remember
a lot of other amazing things like you
scientists trying to cure malaria or or
or overcoming famine or the rights we've
managed to give to people or the
literacy we've spread around the world.
The stories of war seem more powerful
than all of this.
So I want to suggest something. Suggest
something a bit radical.
The debt we owe is not to the past. The
debt we owe is to the future. The debt
we owe is to the living and those yet to
come about. The debt we owe is the
future of our children.
Now, I can see a problem here, and you
can probably see a problem. You're going
to see to me, right, these nations are
just going to disappear in this amazing
world that I'm suggesting we could have.
Well, it is, of course, very, very
difficult. But there are things that
suggest that we might be up to that
challenge. We know humans are very good
at cooperating and very good at creating
solidarity. If you ask most people in
this room, they would accept that all
human beings, it should have basic human
rights.
Many of you will be part of enormous
generous processes to try and help
people in other parts of the world in
humanitarian projects. And we know we
have a common interest with people. We
experienced COVID. We're experiencing
everything that takes place in the
environment. All right? So we know we
need to work with the world in creating
a different place and we also know that
we're capable of organizing this because
ironically nations and world religions
work on a global scale. So we know we
can do these things. So I've got a few
suggestions.
Look again at nationalism.
Ask where it came from and when. and
don't get too sucked in to the myths and
the stories about your nation.
Secondly, I think we need to lose the
militarization
our nations appear to have been built
upon and we need to think about some
core values that we can share across
humanity. And I'm thinking of trust and
partnership. I'm thinking of reciprocity
and generosity. And I'm thinking of the
values of equality, justice, and human
rights.
Maybe we could have a few statues and
songs that remember humanity and
cooperation.
Nationalism, I think, is a uniquely
dangerous form of political organizing.
We need to understand it.
We need to build new bonds of solidarity
beyond the nation. And we need to do so
because we owe it to our children.
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