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Жолбов. Английский билеты. 4-5 курс / 4 курс The contribution of historical and political myths to nation building

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31. The contribution of historical and political myths to nation building

To understand the concept of nation-building, it is necessary to have some definition of what a nation is. Early conceptions of nation defined it as a group or race of people who shared history, traditions, and culture, sometimes religion, and usually language. Thus the United Kingdom comprises four nations, the English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. The people of a nation generally share a common national identity, and part of nation-building is the building of that common identity. Some distinguish between an ethnic nation, based in race or ethnicity, and a civic nation, based in common identity and loyalty to a set of political ideas and institutions, and the linkage of citizenship to nationality.

In connection with it, we can say that in order to build a nation, to create a community of people, to unite them, a lot of methods are used, and creation of historical and political myths about a nation is one of those methods. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values. With the help of those myths many social and political purposes can be reached. In totalitarian dictatorships, myths often exist only for the purpose of state-sponsored propaganda. The leader might be given, for example, a mythical supernatural life history in order to make him or her seem god-like and supra-powerful (cult of personality). However, those myths exist in every society. In liberal regimes they can serve the purpose of inspiring civic virtue and self-sacrifice, or of shoring up the power of dominant groups and legitimizing their rule.

We can take such a well-known historical and political myth of “American melting pot” as an example. It is common knowledge that Americans believe that their state was created by the people of different nations, beliefs, adherents of various cultural traditions and so on. That’s why they believe their country to be a chosen one. But the fact is that America was populated by the emigrants from the Europe, who mainly were Anglo-Saxons and shared the same values, cultural traditions, religion and spoke the same language. Thereby, the main body of American nation was people of one culture. But the question arises what the purpose of spreading this misinformation was. And, taking into account everything mentioned, the answer is clear for me, it was done for the purpose of uniting all the people, who decided to become an American. So, this myth serves a social purpose of uniting and political purpose of strengthening national feelings.

In this sense, I can say that the contribution of historical and political myths to nation-building is great, as they help nations to identify themselves.