Back in bed, a dream conversation:
"It's nationalism that's killing you people. You've got to fight that. Forget nation. Think human beings. Not family values, not clan values, not local values, not national values, but universal values. Be international-minded."
International-minded, yeah, we were plenty international-minded once. The Third International. World revolution. Forget country. The unity and brotherhood of workers. Really worked.
"Yes, but no war between countries. That's been the great killer, hasn't it? In every century? In the last century we set the record, I think. Is that the way you want to imitate the big countries around you, the ones that have always been around you. Pushing you around. Until they turn on each other. Do you really want to join them? Play their old game?"
No, but over here we read history closely. We know that if you don't play that game, and play it well, you get wiped out. Try to find Poland on the map after 1795. Maybe you have to live in a disorganized region full of warlords for a while — no common law, no tax system, no big projects, no infrastructure, no security — before you can understand what nationalism gives you. Read more history.
(The old reminder to Americans: you over there, with three thousand miles of ocean on each side and friends above and below, how can you understand centuries of life in the middle of Europe, with possible exterminators never more than sixty miles away? )
I say, "I've read some history. I know that until China exchanged its warlords for a strong central government it was helpless before nations powerful in their nationhood."
There's more to their nationalism. It lets them set up national universities and fund tuition and in the end build high-speed rail networks and put on great Olympics. But most important, from our Balkan point of view, it lets them defend themselves.
"That is, fight wars. Which may be good or bad."
Yes but whichever it is, when you're in the country it's better to win than to lose. And winning depends very much on the national spirit developed in the nation's youth. There's the "unity and brotherhood" that Zoran said was taught in Serb primary schools.
"I see." What I saw was my own primary school in Ohio. A picture of George Washington on the wall. The flag up front, near the door. 8 a.m. We stand and face the flag. At the first notes of "To the Colors," played by the school bugler at the end of the hall, we put our hands on our hearts. Outside the other members of the Drum and Bugle Corps are raising the big school flag. At the last note, timed with the arrival of the school flag at the top of the pole, we extend our arms to the room flag. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisible...."
This was the ceremony, instituted after World War I, that prevailed through the twenties and thirties in Norwood, and it differed little, I think, from that adopted in most of the nation's schools. If those who fought World War II had national spirit planted in them early, this must have been it.
So there I am. Unless I think we could have fought World War II without such spirit, or think that war didn't have to be won, I have to agree with my Balkan friend: national spirit is a good thing to have.
No comments:
Post a Comment