National Identities (as we know it) Will Fade Away
National Identities (as we know it) Will Fade Away
And why this is a good thing
People have an intuitive concept, feeling, and identification with the ‘soul-identity’ of a nation-state. It expresses itself with a sense of commonality and shared identity with the ‘fellow countrymen’, a variety of shared cultural values and elements such as language, religion, traditions, customs, etc., or at least a sense of belonging to a geographical region. Many individuals stand ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for their motherland. Fueled by a profound sense of patriotism, their commitment transcends personal considerations, embodying a selfless devotion to the protection of their nation. There is a deep identification and connection to a ‘nation-soul’.
However, this psychological identification that is rooted in a sense of unity and commonality has also its flipside: It represents a separation and distinction of one nation from another. It impels people of one country to pursue their interests without caring much about whether this might harm the interests of other countries. It is what makes one militarily and economically stronger nation subjugate other nations who are not felt as fellows of the same human aggregate, with violence, war, colonization, and exploitation.
Curiously, however, something has turned things upside down. The economically weakest and politically most unstable nations are slowly but steadily ‘colonizing’ the stronger ones. Immigration involving the movement of people driven by economic factors, political instability, or social unrest, across national borders has become a major factor that is affecting all the wealthier countries with destabilizing effects. We know all too well what instinctive reaction this has triggered.
The arrival of new communities with new cultures, customs, religions, and languages other than one’s own is felt by many as a threat to their identity. The idea of accommodating, adapting, and integrating such diverse groups into a century- or even millennia-old consolidated nation is perceived as a danger to one’s collective cultural self-preservation. The ideal of an inclusive and tolerant multiculturalism is looked upon suspiciously, or even seen as a toxic ideology that threatens the security of the country. Any newcomer is not seen as a potential new economic, cultural, or social resource that could contribute to the development of a nation, but as unsustainable pressure on public finances, and services that strain communal cohesion and harm public safety. The basal reaction was and still is to protect the nation-state and its national identity, as it is. Any cultural change is felt as an intolerable stress that is proceeding much too quickly and is too big. Frustration and fury for something that is feared to upset community cohesion mounts. The national identity, sovereignty, and the control and protection of national borders must be preserved at any cost. For example by resorting to emergency legislations and, eventually, even abolishing democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.
I guess that all those reading here most likely (hopefully) do not share this viewpoint, but we must be aware that this feeling and fear is quite diffuse not only among those who have xenophobic and authoritarian tendencies. It is something inherent in our nature (it has most likely an evolutionary origin that shaped our brains) to worry about the potential loss of territory, access to resources, and loss of identity. While it is a fact that immigration has triggered xenophobic sentiments sparking fears of cultural change rooted in irrational aversion and prejudices that reflect a perceived threat to one’s national identity. This has become a focal point for isolationistic ideologies, which often exploit anxieties to fuel anti-immigrant sentiments. Especially far-right political figures and parties capitalize on the perceived threats posed by immigration, calling for restrictive policies, border control measures, construction of walls, and sometimes even adopting xenophobic rhetoric. Authoritarian and anti-democratic political movements that seek to redefine national identity and resist what they perceive as external threats are growing stronger from year to year and might even take control in a not so far future, potentially rolling back the film of history.
What kind of migratory phenomenon determined this state of affairs? every year the EU deals with a couple of million migrants seeking asylum, or refugee status, trying to enter (mostly legally, only a minority illegally) the European continent. As of 1 January 2022, there were 23.8 million non-EU citizens residing in the EU, representing 5.3% of the 27-nation block’s 447 million inhabitants. If people with EU citizenship are included, there are now 38 million people born outside the EU living in it or 8.5% of the population.1 This is enough, to trigger the worst fears making the populist political parties skyrocket in polls and election outcomes.
The point is that we are only at the beginning of a much longer story of migration that is awaiting us ahead. The future migrations, especially towards the Northern Hemisphere are likely to increase exponentially in the coming decades. They will be influenced by demographic, economic, environmental, and political factors, as I amply described in my last posts on the world’s global ecological overshoot and climate change. With a coming +3 °C global warming, the tropical regions will be subjected to intense and prolonged droughts and environmental changes that will force hundreds of millions to migrate and resettle elsewhere. It is more likely than not that, North America and Europe will be flooded by an unstoppable migratory flux of (so-called) ‘foreigners’ with a completely different culture, history, customs, and religion. Something that will remix the present cultural landscapes, reshape demographics, and redefine societal structures.
Make no mistake. No migration policy will stop them. Governments were utterly unable to do so in the past, and there is no reason to believe that they will be in the future. The so-called ‘national identity,’ as we know it presently, will fade away. Not because people will be willing to give it up, but simply because it will no longer exist, other than in history books. Like it or not, this is the future awaiting us ahead. The question is not if this will be the case, but rather how we will deal with this.
Because, once we will realize that there is no way back to some nostalgic ideology that imagines one’s country isolated from the rest of the world on a happy island, we will have to make a choice. The first option involves adhering to an impractical notion of national purity, transformed into an ideology detached from reality, insisting on isolationist instincts in a bid to preserve a bygone reality, and eventually resorting to violence and authoritarian regression. Conversely, the alternative is to acknowledge the existing state of affairs and conceive of a new understanding of national identity, that involves a coexistence between diverse communities, and a new ideal of human unity.
Useless to say that, in the following, I will describe the second alternative.
But then, again, we must ask ourselves what makes a nation a nation? What defines a national identity that unites individuals within a specific nation or country? What determines a sense of belonging and commonality that people within a nation feel toward each other? What leads to that social cohesion we call a ‘nation’ a ‘country’ or ‘my motherland’?
Is it a shared language? Or religion? Many countries have different languages (e.g., Switzerland) and religions (e.g., India) but do not fall apart for their cultural diversity. Is it a long shared historical experience? India and Israel are relatively newly formed nations. Ethnic homogeneity? The US and many other countries are not ethnically homogeneous. All are becoming less so. Homogeneity in traditions, customs, values, beliefs, literature, art, music, and other cultural expressions? I couldn’t think of one country without such variety.
So, what is it?
If we investigate the question from a strictly formal point of view, what makes me German or Italian, or someone else American or British, French or Japanese, etc. is the birthplace and a passport that gives you the right to stay in a geographical area. That’s all.
And yet, there is something undefinable, intangible, and psychologically powerful that makes us feel intellectually and spiritually part of some more or less loose national identity.
The materialists would explain this away in terms of Darwinian evolution, this sense of national belonging is useful to maintain a cooperative group-oriented behavior crucial for survival and reproduction. It can be understood as a biological trait that evolution has fixed into our brains because of its evolutionary advantage: Promoting cooperation and unity within a cohesive community with shared resources, better defense against external threats, and improved chances for successful reproduction and the passing on of genes that have better chances of survival and reproduction.
Well, there is certainly a truth in this, but is that all? The materialist standpoint forgets that Nature has always done the opposite as well. It mixed up species, genetic pools, and human and animal ethnic groups, and has always preferred change, and variety while being permanently busy mixing up everything rather than maintaining a status quo. From a higher perspective, the present world's migratory fluxes can be seen as an activity of Nature to reshuffle, combine, and recombine peoples, groups, ethnicities, and nations. If the phenomenon turns out to be so unmanageable with no national protectionist measure working, it is because, what is at work, is a law of Nature—that is, migration is a phenomenon that is instantiated by higher directives at an occult level we have no clue about.
So, fasten your seat belts, here I begin with the spiritual and post-material perspective of things, Nature, and life.
It is only by complementing a strictly intellectual understanding with a perspective that embraces this latter point of view that we can, not only understand the true nature of migration but also what the possible solutions could be to a problem that might turn out to be a false problem.
For this purpose, I would like to mention the vision of the Indian mystic and poet Sri Aurobindo who once wrote three treatises about the future social and spiritual development of humankind entitled “The Human Cycle”, “The Ideal of Human Unity,” and “War and Self-Determination.” Especially in these works, while he did not directly address the modern phenomenon of migration, he outlined a vision of spiritual human unity as an aspect of the evolution of consciousness, from which one can infer powerful insights on this matter.
Sri Aurobindo predicted that sooner or later the human mind, which is still obsessed with physical sciences, will discover the deeper psychological elements that determine our individual and collective destiny. We believe that commercial motives mostly determine the good or bad relationships between nations. However, this is a superficial view that doesn’t capture the full dimension and dynamics of what is going on behind the veil. The time will come when humans begin to discover their true inner spirit and realize that it is the same spirit in their friends and foes. While the intellect is so much focussed on commercial self-interest and conceives and perceives the idea of a universal brotherhood transcending national and ethnic boundaries by synthesis and integration of different cultures and traditions as a noble but naive ideal, once the inner spirit of humanity awakens, this ideal will not only light up as a sort of ‘religion of humanity’ but will even be its inevitable destiny.
Because this is not seen as just another political or social-historical development alone. In Aurobindo’s vision, the future where humanity transcends divisions and achieves a higher human unity is not something that will be realized by a complicated political and/or technological machinery but is something already decreed as a secret mystic goal of a higher Nature influenced, behind the veil, by a divine will.
Sri Aurobindo's vision of national identity is rooted in a spiritual and intuitive frame where the foundation of a nation isn’t determined neither by the more or less selfish interests or communal commercial aims nor by a language, customs, culture, or religion. Despite all the outer aspects (economy, language, geography, ethnicity, etc.) that our superficial mind takes as determining factors building a nation's identity, the foundation of every true nation2 is spiritual. The ordinary human mind identifies and objectifies the Nation, rather than viewing and realizing it as a spiritual subjective entity.
“This objectiveness comes out very strongly in the ordinary emotional conception of the nation which centres round its geographical, its most outward and material aspect, the passion for the land in which we dwell, the land of our fathers, the land of our birth, country, patria, vaterland, janma-bhumi. When we realise that the land is only the shell of the body, though a very living shell indeed and potent in its influences on the nation, when we begin to feel that its more real body is the men and women who compose the nation-unit, a body ever changing, yet always the same like that of the individual man, we are on the way to a truly subjective communal consciousness. For then we have some chance of realising that even the physical being of the society is a subjective power, not a mere objective existence. Much more is it in its inner self a great corporate soul with all the possibilities and dangers of the soul-life.” - The Human Cycle, Ch., IV The Discovery of the Nation-Soul
There is a deeper, spiritual essence that unites people and provides a sense of purpose and direction to the nation. A metaphysical view that places the spirit and the soul at the center of a genuine nation-identity. In this view, every nation has a soul. Not only in a metaphorical sense but in a concrete and real sense. Like every individual possesses a soul, also a nation is guided and determined by one group-soul. It is the collective soul of the nation that determines the unique and exceptional nation-identity. People don’t rationalize this but feel it inwardly. Not as an abstract notion but as a soul-identification that makes them ready to immolate themselves for a (more or less irrational, impassioned, and potentially perverted) patriotic ideal. The mind explains it away with the identity in language, culture, customs, or common interests, but its true nature is neither material nor emotional, but deeply spiritual. The national identity is not static but subject to a continuous evolution that aligns with the evolving consciousness of its people. Yet, it remains the same nation-soul that maintains its identity. In fact, this true nation-soul abhors uniformity and homogeneity. All nations that attempted to crystallize their social evolution, tried to flatten everything into a manageable and easier controllable uniformity, and eventually even secluded themselves from the external world to preserve its status quo, sooner or later crumbled. When a nation can’t refuse the diversity that it contains and even defines, but resorts to internal separations, demarcations, and divisions, it weakens itself. We talk about the ‘social integration’ of minorities, but too many schools, universities, or churches are attended by either all-black or all-white communities. In too many cities we created ghettos where people of one or the other minority are amassed. We talk about justice and fair distribution of resources but the social gap between rich and poor is steadily increasing. It is an undeclared Apartheid, sometimes hidden and even unconscious, and that we have accepted as a normal and almost natural state of affairs. But it is something against the laws of Nature. Because Nature thrives only in diversity, change, and differences, yet maintaining a fundamental unity. It is only fear that asks for a too slow, or no change. But the real freedom of a living individual and collective soul, demands a society that is as diverse as possible. A nation-soul can flourish and become a fruitful, harmonious, and powerful unity, only if it is the natural expression of a development that comes from within, and sees, perceives, conceives, and realizes that every change, is part of an expression of another soul that deep down, is still my soul. According to Aurobindo, it is “in the harmony between unity and diversity lies the secret of life.” And, to be incorporated into a social tissue, every diversity must be a free variation. Because freedom and liberty are the law of every being. It is only through the growth of our natural self-fulfillment that we will be able to find also the harmony between us, the environment, and the ‘other one.’
“[…] The primal law and purpose of a society, community or nation is to seek its own self-fulfilment; it strives rightly to find itself, to become aware within itself of the law and power of its own being and to fulfil it as perfectly as possible, to realise all its potentialities, to live its own self-revealing life. The reason is the same; for this too is a being, a living power of the eternal Truth, a self-manifestation of the cosmic Spirit, and it is there to express and fulfil in its own way and to the degree of its capacities the special truth and power and meaning of the cosmic Spirit that is within it. The nation or society, like the individual, has a body, an organic life, a moral and aesthetic temperament, a developing mind and a soul behind all these signs and powers for the sake of which they exist. One may say even that, like the individual, it essentially is a soul rather than has one; it is a group-soul that, once having attained to a separate distinctness, must become more and more self-conscious and find itself more and more fully as it develops its corporate action and mentality and its organic self-expressive life.” - The Human Cycle, Ch., IV The Discovery of the Nation-Soul
Thus, a national identity is first and foremost a psychological identity that can’t be caged into any intellectual, political, economic, ethnic, or cultural formula. A national identity is a fluid soul-entity that blossoms and prospers if it accepts diversity in unity with all its communal and individual constituents allowed to develop freely.
But this can’t become a reality starting from a mere intellectual theory, construct, or noble intent. It can come only by a change of soul in humanity. A change of soul that feels, recognizes, and practices a living sense of human oneness in thought feeling, and life. It is a change of human nature that realizes and feels inwardly a deep spiritual connection with everybody, well beyond one’s national borders. Paradoxically, to create a healthy and successful local national identity, we must learn to feel and identify in one global transnational identity as well. The exact opposite of what we are doing now with the resurgent isolationist instincts that migration triggers so much. Only a human brotherhood founded on the soul principles of liberty and equality beyond all borders will be able to create nation-souls and a nation-liveliness as the unfoldment of the self-development of the divine in man and all his being. These nations will live from their soul and will feel no necessity to live from their ego, and economic, political, or military power.
A harmonious coexistence of various cultural, linguistic, and religious elements within the nation that do not erase differences, but even encourage them, can contribute to the richness of the national identity.
No material or political theory can achieve this if it does not incorporate the spiritual dimension. Only if this spiritual dimension becomes a reality will nations cooperate and collaborate for the common good, transcending narrow interests and boundaries, and finally abolish war forever. It is naive to believe that war will be abolished by reducing arsenals, negotiating tables, or fabricating some complex political initiative. As long as the sense of separation persists, war will always be possible and resurface in one way or another.
This is the present goal of Nature. The migratory phenomenon isn’t an accident we have to amend. It is Nature’s way of breaking down barriers by which it is going to coalesce peoples and nations into a melting pot. It aims at fostering a more integrated and interconnected world. We can see it as an opportunity for conceiving a harmonious and inclusive approach to migration allowing diverse individuals to come together and contribute to the collective evolution of humanity. Rethink migration as a force of Nature impelling people to come together, transcending geographical and cultural differences, and to work towards an ideal of human unity in diversity. The sooner we recognize and accept mentally and emotionally this state of affairs, the better it is. Or, otherwise, insist and persist in the present path of separation, duality, and division, which may allow some short-term gains but, in the long run, assures us a global human catastrophe.
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However, one should consider that in a tiny state like Luxemburg, almost 50% are foreign-born while, in contrast, the lowest shares were recorded in Romania (1.7%), Poland (2.5%), and Hungary (2.9%).
By ‘true nation’ I allude to the fact that nations could be created artificially without inner cohesion. Typically this is the case with an empire, an invading power, or a military subjugation that maintains an exterior unity through force that, however, finds no acceptance in the hearts and minds of its peoples. An example of such an artificial aggregate could be the Soviet Union, which was only a political association that, once the centralizing force was missing, it lost eleven of its republics which quickly split away. There was no inner and spiritual identification with that ‘union.’