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Michael Ignatieff Quotes

The document summarizes two key passages from the book "Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism". The first passage discusses the author's experience growing up during the Cold War era and their memories of living during a time of great geopolitical tensions between opposing spheres of influence. The second passage contrasts civic nationalism, where national identity is a choice, with ethnic nationalism, where identity is inherited; it argues that while ethnic nationalism may feel deeper, civic nationalism is more realistic as a basis for community since shared ethnicity alone does not guarantee social cohesion and force is often used instead of consent to maintain unity.

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341 views1 page

Michael Ignatieff Quotes

The document summarizes two key passages from the book "Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism". The first passage discusses the author's experience growing up during the Cold War era and their memories of living during a time of great geopolitical tensions between opposing spheres of influence. The second passage contrasts civic nationalism, where national identity is a choice, with ethnic nationalism, where identity is inherited; it argues that while ethnic nationalism may feel deeper, civic nationalism is more realistic as a basis for community since shared ethnicity alone does not guarantee social cohesion and force is often used instead of consent to maintain unity.

Uploaded by

lesmiserables24601
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism I am a child of the Cold War.

. I was born in the year of the Berlin Airlift of 1947 and my first political memory of any consequence is of being very afraid, for one day, during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Looking back now, I can see that I lived through the last imperial age, the last time when the nation-states of the world were clearly allocated to two opposing spheres of influence, the last time when terror produced peace. Now terror seems only to produce more terror. Page 4 Ethnic nationalism claims, by contrast, that an individuals deepest attachments are inherited, not chosen. It is the national community that defines the individual, not the individuals who define the national community. This psychology of belonging may have greater depth than civic nationalisms, but the sociology that accompanies it is a good deal less realistic. The fact, for example, that two Serbs share Serbian ethnic identity may unite them against Croats, but it will do nothing to stop them fighting each other over jobs, spouses, scarce resources, and so on. Common ethnicity, by itself, does not create social cohesion or community, and when it fails to do so, as it must, nationalist regimes are necessarily impelled toward maintaining unity by force rather than by consent. Pages 7-8

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