Which reminds ME of a historian, John Lukacs, who has pointedly argued that
the apparent war of ideologies in this century has concealed the real
motivating idea of this century, nationalism. Hitler and the concept of the
folk-nation, not Marx/Lenin and Wilson's atheist or theist versions of
internationalism, was the cultural revolution that finally displaced
feudalism as a model of social identity. Shevardnadze seems to be making
the same sort of "blood is culture" argument that Black nationalists and
Christian Identity White Separatists in the United States share in their
mutual assaults on multicultural (Internationalist) identity. Lukacs writes
as though it is a virtual certainty that veiled Hitlerism will overcome
Wilsonian Internationalism, which he thinks lacks an independent cultural
base. But that cultural base *does* exist, in the Social Gospel traditions
in the Catholic and Protestant churches, and as the ideal of Science and
Academe--as exhibited on XMCA. Certainly, in the absence of any
Internationalist tradition other than Marx/Lenin's in the ex-U.S.S.R,
discredited because Stalin's imperial nationalism cloaked itself in its
name, it makes sense that the most virulent versions of nationalism have
little to oppose them; even the "Communists" are nationalists. All the more
reason for the ex-West to get over its own identity crisis, try to avoid
yielding to Blood and Flag, and forge the organizations of international
community on the governmental and academic level to help prevent that--again
such as XMCA. I would add religion too, which academia tends to dismiss. I
note that Russian nationalists certainly see the various religious groups
evangelizing over there as Blood-enemies, doing something spiritually akin
to adopting and transporting unwanted children. If I recall correctly, the
Duma outlawed a bunch of them earlier this year. Religion certainly remains
the determining battleground for political hegemony in the United States
today: It is well known that radical nationalist wing of the Republican
party began winning elections when they identified with conservative
protestant Christians. It is less well known that Bill Clinton, a Southern
Baptist who knows how to speak to Fundamentalists, split the conservative
Christian vote in 1992 and 1996, a decisive factor in 1992. The rest of the
Democratic party hasn't figured out how to do that yet.
But I'm digressing--and on a digression, no less--so I'll leave off
grand-culture theorising for today--and maybe get back to my own
job-hunting!....
Doug