Nationalism In The Baltics And The Politics

Of Recognition Essay, Research Paper

`.The best political arrangement is relative to the history and culture

of the people whose lives it will arrange..

Michael Walzer... Although we live in a particular world, we

can still aim toward a juridical ethic that would function as a critical authority against the history

which determines us so deeply. Andre Van de Putte ............ A common perception is that

nationalism is in decline world-wide..

It is very easy to list factors that contribute to such an apparent

decline, or as some would have it, lead inexorably to it.. For instance, we recognize the large role

that international corporations play in the world of finance and business; we

recognize the interdependence of economic systems, and a virtual free market in

certain basic commodities.. The effects

of the internationals are felt not only in the economic realm but also bleed

into the cultural arena . culture follows money or chases money.. These effects may be seen in. how local talents, whether they are Latvian

opera divas or. Russian hockey players

or Lithuanian basketball stars, follow the dictates of the international market

place. In other words, they end up where the money is.. Furthermore,. cultural creations such as films, recorded music and popular

novels are themselves commodities promoted by a world-wide culture industry

largely dominated by the United States. (I understand that Latvia used to

produce as many as seven or eight films a year and now the industry is on the

verge of extinction.). Such factors

internationalize culture and threaten the very ground on which national

identity may be based.. It may also be

thought that national cultural identities are to some extent compromised by

being subject to international human rights as promoted by the United States,

and as embodied in UN doctrines, requirements for membership in the EEC and

elsewhere.. Issues such as gender

relations or sexual mutilation in fundamentalist Moslem states are criticized

as are civil liberties and democratic rights violations in China and in Cuba,

ethnic relationships in East Timor and in the Balkans, and possibly, human

rights issues dealing with language rights in Latvia. The national identities

we forged over the past centuries with so much sacrifice are in many ways

slipping away from us. Is nationalism a dying phenomenon, or worse, is it,

where it rears its head, a force for evil, an excuse for vindictiveness........ ..... When we turn on the television news or

look at the political page of our newspapers we are constantly reminded that

nationalism is .the refuge of a scoundrel., that its appeals are .essentially

sub-human or primitive in character, a deformity that no civilized person would

have anything to do with..[1]

Such a sentiment was expressed by Albert Einstein. The recent events in the

Balkans attest to this . Serbian .ethnic cleansing. in Kosovo is but the latest

event in a troubled world.. Who can say

that the core of the problem, i.e., that which drives such events lies in

nationalism rather than in religious conflicts, or simply in vindictiveness

drawing upon a long memory of perceived wrongs inflicted on the people; perhaps

a social memory extending back over centuries. But whatever value attaches to

being a member of a dominant ethnic community which practices marginalization

and demeaning of ethnic minorities, such value is clearly overridden by the

suffering inflicted upon the minorities. . However, nationalism represents a range or

family of views and need not take such extreme form.. Nationalism, if it is to gain acceptance within liberal

democratic communities, must recognize human diversity in a number of

parameters . religious, cultural, racial, ethnic, and in a more qualified form,

linguistic diversity.. Such a version of

nationalism is defensible within the parameters alluded to above. Indeed, in

qualified form, it has found concrete expression in the world today, not in the

Balkans, as I think we can surmise, but, to a large extent in Canada and in a

more qualified way in the Baltics . Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.. ..... Let me begin. my presentation of a defensible version of nationalism by

providing an account of the. three. main forms that nationalism may take. Of the

three forms, two are commonly recognized, and the third has recently been

advanced in contemporary writings on the subject. I shall discuss, in brief,

the two forms and then proceed to a more systematic characterization and

evaluation of the third.. The three

forms are labelled ethnic, civic, and cultural nationalism. We might begin by

asking what is it about the three conceptions of nationalism that binds them

together, that unifies them as one general type of human social

phenomenon.. Do they all share common

characteristics, or is there, in a sense, a family res

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