{"id":1564847,"date":"2024-03-21T03:35:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T03:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=149051"},"modified":"2024-03-21T03:35:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T03:35:53","slug":"monotheistic-roots-of-nationalism-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/21\/monotheistic-roots-of-nationalism-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Monotheistic Roots of Nationalism Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Summary of Part I\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

After briefly reviewing the theories of the relationship between religion and nationalism, I find the theories of Anthony Smith, George Mosse and Adrian Hutchinson the most compelling. They all agree that religion provides the\u00a0propagandistic\u00a0foundation for nationalism. But I also claim that it is a particular kind of religion, monotheism, that is directly connected to nationalism. Animistic tribal societies and Bronze Age agricultural states did not have the same religious\u00a0paraphernalia\u00a0as monotheism, and societies like ancient Egypt, Mesopotamian, China and India were never nationalistic.<\/p>\n

The second part of my article focuses on how monotheistic beliefs and dramatization have the same parallels in nationalization processes. The categories include the destruction of intermediary institutions, the commitment to expansion and the importance of both origins and future destiny in history as opposed to mythology. In both nationalism and monotheism founders are mythologized. Both nationalism and monotheism use the arts (painting, music and literature) for altering states of consciousness.<\/p>\n

Coming\u00a0Attractions<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this article we will be discussing the social-psychological and psychological techniques by which both monotheism and nationalism promote loyalty. These include means of transmission (writing as opposed to oral), how social time (holidays) is marked throughout the year as well as individual time (rites of passage). We find that marking geography (territory and cityscapes) is crucial to both monotheism and nationalism. Each demands self-sacrifice, either as religious martyrs or soldiers. Each requires a conversion process. Membership is usually lifetime. Each has processes of exclusion and its members are purified through wars. Membership is sustained over time through fear of being exiled.<\/p>\n

Next, I show that both nationalism and monotheism support individualism (as opposed to collectivism) for different reasons. I provide six reasons why each supports individualism. Lastly, I provide two qualifications. First, I pose the question of why the monotheistic religion of Islam is not included. After all, Islam began as a world religion hundreds of years before the rise of nation-states. It would seem to have had plenty of time to connect to the emergence of nation-states around the world. Why didn\u2019t it? Secondly,\u00a0in the 21st\u00a0century we have\u00a0a nation-state that is very powerful (India) that is founded on Hinduism, a\u00a0polytheistic<\/em>\u00a0rather than a monotheistic religion. How do I explain that?<\/p>\n

Marking Time: Special Occasions\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ability to recognize patterns is one of the adaptive skills that allowed the human species to survive in competition with other species. We live most of our everyday lives as problem solvers. But at the same time we need to be socialized to rise, metaphorically, from the ground level and examine long-term patterns to assess where we have been and where we are going.<\/p>\n

In pagan traditions, sacred patterns involve the changing of the seasons. In Catholicism they include Christmas day, Easter, Lent, feast days and saints\u2019 days. At the same time, at the micro level, the rites of passage in the life of an individual are linked to spiritual traditions through the sacraments. In Catholicism, the sacraments include baptism at birth, confirmation during adolescence, marriage in adulthood, and the last rites just before death. Further, a Catholic is expected to attend mass at least once a week and to go to confession. Lastly, monotheists – whether Christian, Jew, or Muslim – make pilgrimages. What does this have to do with socialization into nationalism? Like monotheism, nationalism has its special days, including Independence Day, various presidents\u2019 days, Thanksgiving and Memorial Day. There are pilgrimages to\u00a0Washington, DC\u00a0and trips to Mount Rushmore all of which support nationalism.<\/p>\n

Marking Places: Geographies of Loyalty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Socialization takes place in physical spaces. Pagan societies built mounds and temples to spirits or deities. In caste agricultural civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia, physical buildings of monumental proportions made of impenetrable materials had a psychologically intimidating impact that was not lost on those in power. Likewise, Christians, Jews and Muslim elites build churches, synagogues and mosques, not just to pay homage to their deities, but to propagandize the lower classes into following them since they are God\u2019s representatives on earth. Sacred sites are not limited to places of worship. Streets and buildings are named after saints. In the case of nationalism, we have gargantuan state buildings in Washington, streets named after presidents, and monuments at Bunker Hill, the Statue of Liberty, Plymouth Rock, and Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

Creating Atmosphere: Literature and Painting<\/strong><\/p>\n

For most \u201cpeople of the book,\u201d hearing stories from sacred texts like the Bible or the Koran begins at a very young age. This upbringing is strengthened by studying, as with learning the Catholic catechism in grammar school or preparing to read an excerpt from the Old Testament as part of a Jewish bar or bat mitzvah. The most logical parallel to nationalism would be reading or even memorizing the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. However, since this is rarely done, a very important source of nationalistic literature is novels about the American West.<\/p>\n

Animistic hunting and gathering societies used cave paintings, amulets and totems) long before monotheists to socialize (Lewis-Williams, 2002) their members. In the case of Catholicism in the 17th\u00a0century, baroque paintings were epically dramatized to overwhelm the population with monumental scale. Furthermore, music has perhaps been the most compelling of the arts in creating an immediate emotional reaction. Hymns such as \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d\u00a0<\/em>help the faithful sing their way into submission.<\/p>\n

Nationalist socialization may come about when the population is being exposed to patriotic paintings such as\u00a0Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/em>. Music such as the \u201cStar-Spangled Banner\u201d, \u201cMy Country, \u2018Tis of Thee\u201d, and \u201cGod Bless America\u201d are bound to rouse even the most reluctant patriot.<\/p>\n

Social Action: Fulfilling Destiny Through Sacrifice<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we have seen, both monotheism and nationalism must use the past in order to justify the present. However, each must also organize in the present by referring to the future. This is done through the expectation of sacrifice of the participants to life itself.<\/p>\n

Anthony Smith (2003) points out five instances in which fulfilling destiny through sacrifice is depicted in paintings.\u00a0\u00a0In Jean-Simon Berth\u00e9lemy\u2019s painting\u00a0Manlius Torquatus Condemning His Son to Death,<\/em>\u00a0we see the conflicted determination of a Roman father\u2019s loyalty to the state in executing his own child for disobeying his order to not engage the enemy in combat. Though torn by the clash of the demands of state and family, Torquatus overcomes his paternal feelings and refuses to listen to his son\u2019s appeal, despite fervent pleas for mercy from friends and family. He maintains legal impartiality and values the state\u2019s welfare over his personal interests. His right hand is publicly outstretched in the preservation of justice while his left hand clutches privately at a father\u2019s agonizing heart.<\/p>\n

According to Smith, the painting\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons,<\/em>\u00a0Jacques-Louis David chose the moment when an anguished Brutus, returning home after the execution of his own sons, hears the cries of his wife and the swooning of his eldest daughter as the bodies of his sons are brought to his house. Having driven out the Tarquin and helping to institute the Republic, Brutus was elected consul in 508 BCE only to discover a monarchial plot fostered by his wife\u2019s family and supported by his two sons. He saw it as his duty to suppress all enemies of the republic, including his own sons.<\/p>\n

In 1778 Johann Heinrich F\u00fcssli was commissioned by the Zurich council to paint\u00a0Oath on the R\u00fctli<\/em>, the cornerstone of Swiss unity and independence. This painting depicts three towering figures who represent the three original forest cantons swearing \u201can oath of everlasting alliance in the R\u00fctli meadow\u201d. Smith argues that it expresses defiance, struggle, unification, and sacrifice for freedom. In its thrusting defiant male figures embody the ideal of willingness to die for the freedom of the nation.<\/p>\n

About a century later, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres\u2019s painting\u00a0Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII <\/em>also conveys the ideal of self-sacrifice as struggle in the service of a higher cause. In 1770 Benjamin West painted\u00a0The Death of General Wolfe<\/em>, an epic depiction of the British general who was mortally wounded at the height of victory over the French in Quebec in 1759.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Smith points out that during the French Revolution:<\/p>\n

On the occasion of Marat\u2019s murder in July 1793, art and ritual proceeded hand in hand. Marat\u2019s friend David was immediately urged by the assembly to paint his portrait. Marat\u2019s assassination shows with great veracity the \u2018Friend of the People\u2019 dying in his bathtub, with a Christ-like wound in his right lung\u2026<\/p>\n

David also had to supervise the lying in state and funeral of his friend. Marat\u2019s corpse was exhibited on a high dais in the Cordeliers Church, above the bath and the packing case, with a smoking incense burner as the only light. The funeral\u2026which lasted six hours took place\u00a0to\u00a0the accompaniment of muffled drum-beat and cannon\u2026 Girls in white with branches of cypress surrounded it, and they were followed by the entire Convention, the municipal authorities and the people of Paris. (Smith, 237)<\/p>\n

These examples show how the political religion of nationalism draws upon Catholic traditions and uses them for national ends in order to evoke a sense of sacred communion with the glorious dead.<\/p>\n

Sacrifice Choreographed in Festivals, Monuments and Song<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Napoleonic Wars were a catalyst for the process of cementing a sense of national identity not just among the French but for those societies under attack. French nationalism was answered by a growing German nationalism, which was at first cultural but soon became politicized with the Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena in 1806. The War of Liberation of 1813 and the return of aristocratic regimes after Napoleon\u2019s defeat stimulated collective expressions of national sentiment in the form of festivals and monuments.<\/p>\n

Smith informs us that in 1832 the Germans held their first mass festival in the same alleged place where the ancient German tribes had held their meetings. There was a procession to the ruins of the castle ruins in which patriotic songs were sung and people wore ancient German dress. The later 19th century saw greater efforts to invite people into the sacred communion of the nation through mass celebrations. This began with the songs of the volunteers for the armies of the French Revolution.<\/p>\n

Dancing and Military Drills<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sustaining nationalist and religious loyalties is not just about getting lost in mystical symbols and myths or engaging in altruistic actions. Building political loyalty to a nation or a religion also involves acting collectively in a very structured way. In his very provocative book,\u00a0Keeping Together in Time<\/em>, William McNeill argues that building community involves \u201cmuscular bonding\u201d: community dancing, communal work, singing, religious rituals and military drills. In community dancing, moving and singing together tends to dissolve group tensions, reminding community members that they have more in common than they have differences. In the area of work, singing and moving together makes otherwise boring work more creative. The great large-scale architectural projects of ancient civilizations could never have been built without workers singing and moving in sync. McNeill points out that the rise of religious dervish orders at the beginning of the 11th century was so powerful in altering states of consciousness that they came close to being declared heretical.<\/p>\n

In addition, McNeill argues that military\u00a0<\/em>muscular bonding, specifically close-order drilling, creates altered states. In his book\u00a0The Pursuit of Power<\/em>, McNeill concluded that the victory of European armies over non-European armies was largely due to well-drilled troops who were more efficient in battle. Soldiers moved in unison while performing each of the actions needed to load, aim, and fire their guns. The volleys came faster and misfires were fewer when everyone acted in unison and kept time to shouted commands. The result was more ammunition projected at the enemy in less time.<\/p>\n

However, it was not only the superiority of weapons or efficiency in using them that made Europeans victorious. Drilled troops created deep social-psychological altered states. McNeill suggests that many veterans report that group effort in battle was the high point of their lives. Just like the boundary loss of whirling dervishes, the individual merges with the platoon.<\/p>\n

By inadvertently tapping the inherent human emotional response to keeping together in time, military drills helped create obedient, reliable, and effective soldiers with a spirit that not only superseded previous identities – ethnicity, region, religion – but also insulated them from outside attachments. Soldiers could be counted on to obey their officers predictably even when fighting hundreds or thousands of miles away from their home base.<\/p>\n

McNeill describes witnessing soldiers marching in step as both awe inspiring and terrifying. No twitches, twists, mutterings nor distractions could be seen or heard in the ranks. On the one hand, soldiers were perfectly composed, calm and moving to music. But on the other hand, they were completely poised to destroy human life or be destroyed by it.<\/p>\n

For most of human history, the ruling classes understandably had reservations with arming the lower classes for fear they might recognize their class interests. However, the group experience of altered states that resulted from prolonged drills made soldiers loyal and devoted far beyond any class loyalties. In the 17th century, for poverty-stricken peasant recruits and jobless urbanites recruited from the fringes of an increasingly atomized, commercialized society, the military created a new artificial primary community, providing camaraderie that prevailed in good times and bad, where old-fashioned principles of command and subordination gave meaning and direction to life. It became safe to arm even the poorest classes, pay them a regular wage and expect obedience. In a time of domestic conflict, European soldiers were even willing to fire upon their own social class.<\/p>\n

Before the drill, in the standing army of kings, obedience was extracted through fear of punishment. But the coming of the drill created a lively spirit between soldiers that was less prevalent than before. Now, instead of standing armies of subjects to a king, the citizens\u2019 army shared the collective emotional identity of the nation. For soldiers who received regular pay, there was a good reason to not break ranks.<\/p>\n

It would be an overstatement to say that drilling caused nationalism. The military revolution occurred hundreds of years before the rise of nationalism, which I said came about at the end of the 18th century. But there is no question that military drills helped sustain nationalism once it appeared. Other military formations such as the cavalry couldn\u2019t create such a solidarity among those fighting.<\/p>\n

Conversion and Exile<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last part of socialization to nationalism is the unusual time when a person either joins through conversion or departs in an imposed or self-imposed exile. Typical examples of conversion for monotheists are the moment when Moses was on Mount Sinai or when Saint Paul was on the road to Damascus. The Great Awakenings in the United States in 1725 and 1780, though starting out as Protestant religious revivals, had nationalist implications, according to Wilbur Zelinsky (1988). A nationalist counterpart of conversion is the indoctrination immigrants or refugees receive upon becoming U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n

Neither monotheists nor nationalists tolerate rejection lightly. For both, membership is expected to be lifetime. For national states, registration at birth and death is compulsory.\u00a0What becomes of people who decide to leave? In the case of Catholicism, there is excommunication.\u00a0In all monotheistic religions, there are attacks for such deviations as apostasy, heresy, blasphemy, inquisitions and witch hunts. Nonbelievers are attacked in religious wars as godless atheists. So too, in nationalism, expatriates are feared, ostracized and shunned. They are considered unworthy, traitorous or treasonous. In the case of political opposition, such people become the targets of CIA spying and assassination attempts. As for countries that oppose the nationalist vision, they are subject to state terror, world wars and torture. Please see my summary table at the end of this article.<\/p>\n

Monotheism, Nationalism and Individualism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both monotheism and nationalism support individualism in the following ways:<\/p>\n