Nationalism from a Marxian Perspective :: Politics

Nationalism from a Marxian Perspective The mobilization of the pluges to both support and participate in a wide variety of ethnic and political endeavors is often achieved through nationalism. It can be use to get a society to push for a return to traditional ways and stylish religion, to press on for national liberation and self-determination, to support or fight vast acts of imperialism and genocide, as an excuse to severely obstruct rights and liberties for citizens, and ultimately be used as a great tool in a quest for all out war and full throttled vengeance in any effect in which a country is attacked. For decades, the Nationalist tendency of America has not been as clear or strong as it has been during the current aftermath of the attacks in New York City. The response across America has been widespread and clear people, by and volumed, and in full support of the state and whatever path it wishes to choose, with a bulk of the population even supporting secret military trials and a strict curtailing of civil liberties in America. Nationalism is running rampant in America, much of which goes farther beyond mere patriotism and concern for the state of ones nation and rather into astonishingly high levels of First World chauvinism. But what does this mean(a) on a larger level? How is nationalism used on a larger scale? Is it most always used to have the mass blindly follow the interest of elites? Or is nationalism more complex? To answer these questions, in this paper I will address nationalism on multiple levels and from a Marxian perspective. Nationalism will be dealt with at a structural level, with an examination of how it utilized in both the First World and the tertiary World. Many basic descriptions of what nationalism is exist, and defining precisely what nationalism means is not an easy task. This is in large part because the causes and effects of nationalism greatly varies from social context to social context, as the concrete so cial reality determines the specific shape and character that the nationalism idea takes when it comes to hold a large part of the consciousness of a society (I say the nationalism idea for I feel that nationalism is, primarily, in the realm of the ideological). Put more compactly Nationalism can be, and has been, democratic and authoritarian, forward-looking or backward-looking, socialist or reactionary (Kamenka 1976 3).