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It's a nice theory if this was the way nationalism functions, but nationalism is exclusive. It excludes all other identities for One True Idenitity. And as for the politicants, they will use nationalism to pull people by the nose whether they are in multi-ethnic or single ethnic surrounding. Only thing that nationalism will change will be the rhetoric.

- "We don't have money... It's not because we embezzled it, it is the Other nation, we must expel them from the country.",

- "Our roads are bad, it's not because we did something wrong, those pesky foreigners are destroying them with their cars"

Nationalism is like opium for the masses, it's very effective, but highly addictive, so I'd be careful to recommend it. Asking for nationalism in time of crisis is akin to waving the Black Sun flag (not the Nazi one, but mirror one). Nationalism + crisis often leads to horrific solutions. See Greece for example of such problems.




He's not asking for nationalism - he's pointing out that it is still present, but it does not coincide with the borders of the countries. Consider e.g. Nigeria. It is "somewhat functioning" but there are still major tensions between the various regions along tribal and religious lines.

E.g. my ex is from Nigera, and her dad was from the Igbo tribe. One of the thing she saw all around was her family, and her Igbo friends families, who were fairly successful and many of whom worked well paid jobs in Abuja (the capital) or Lagos, who would opt to rent in Abuja and Lagos while funnelling all their money into building houses in their birth villages that they rarely used.

It took her a while to understand why: Her parents generation all remember the Biafra war all to well, either from direct experience, or from growing up in the aftermath with parents who instilled the ghost of Biafra in them very effectively. Biafra was largely Igbo, and the war saw large amounts of Igbo have properties elsewhere in Nigeria confiscated, and many Igbos were deported from places like Lagos.

Many Igbo as a result to this day consider themselves outsiders, or see it as unsafe to put down ties elsewhere in Nigeria. This includes even people like my ex's dad, who was a high ranking lawyer, who e.g. counted the previous president - Obasanjo - (who was one of the military commanders on the Nigerian side against the secessionist Biafra) as a friend, and the then Vice President as his lawyer, and who split most of his time between Abuja, Lagos and London and certainly had all the connections to be in a position where he should be able to feel safe outside of the Igbo core areas.

You will find other groups who similarly see their primary identity as separate from the country of Nigeria. And that is a story that is repeated in a large number of the African countries.

I agree with you that nationalism can be a terrifying force. But in many cases it will fester even more when it divides countries into groups that see themselves as competing for power of a single country.


I'm not sure what the point of separating alongside nationalistic lines would achieve? Nationalism isn't an objective quality, but a quality that's perceived subjectively by number of people.

You'll never be able to divide on nationalistic lines because they aren't real lines, people can always fall into either a no true Scotsman fallacy, and even if that is settled you'll probably have outliers that might have a mother of nationality A and father of nationality B. Which nation does the child go? Not to mention two nations will probably want to contest same resources, so that leads to further strife.

The issue facing this society is lack of social cohesion, not the issue of nation.




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