Attacks on History

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Clarissa

June 6, 2021

The attacks on history, on historic figures, on the artistic canon, and the constant revelations of how these artists, politicians, thinkers, etc were really evil is all part of the attack on the nation-state.

The nation-state relies for its very existence on the shared stock of legitimating figures and events. “We” deserve to exist as a nation because “we” produced this great art, created this great culture, made these great achievements, and share this stuff that we all love. If there are no achievements, if the art is racist crap, if the founding fathers founded something rubbish, then there’s no reason why we should exist as a “we.” It’s easier to let go of something bad than of something good.

We are simply being schooled into letting go of the nation-state model of governance. Let’s stop denouncing these attacks as stupid. They are nefarious but definitely not dumb. They are very purposeful. You can’t fight something that you don’t understand. It’s time to start understanding.

And I’ve had it with my spell check correcting “nation-state” into “nation-ate.” It adds insult to injury.

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4 responses to “Attacks on History”

zinemin

June 7, 2021

OK, here is one thing I don’t get. Some of your convictions are pretty anti-nation state too, or not? For example, you seem to be convinced that the CDC is either lying about the COVID-vaccine or is so inept that they do not realize the dangers of the vaccine. In that, you seem to deeply distrust your own nation state (and also all the other nation states which have come to the same conclusions about the vaccine).
I agree with you on a lot of things. I think it is dumb to erase all borders and I agree with you that it is idiotic to expect historic figures to live up to today’s standards. I also see that it is important to protect the nation state which provides crucial services like police or social safety.
But if I thought, like you, that my own nation state was either totally incompetent or lying about something I should inject in my own body… why would I not fight and oppose a state like this? I mean, isn’t that a contradiction that you think your nation state should be stronger and live on and at the same time think that it does bodily harm to you unless you somehow on your own find ways to “see through” its manipulations and lies (this is I guess the way the recommendation of this vaccine must feel to you?)

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1. Clarissa
  
  June 7, 2021
  
  The CDC acted as an agent of WHO and completely betrayed national interests, so I don’t accept that example. A functioning nation-state would never have its National Institute of Health investing national money into the research conducted by a hostile foreign power.
  
  What comes after the nation-state isn’t an absence of any state. The new state-form is as – if not more – coercive as the nation-state. Where it’s different is not in the absence of coercion but in its complete lack of interest in giving something back to the citizens.
  
  Our governments ruined our national economies to avoid saying anything negative about China. That’s not nation-state. That’s something completely different.
  
  As for the vaccine, it’s not any government agency that banned all of the vaccine critics from social media.
  
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lb

June 7, 2021

Well, all documents of civilization are also documents of barbarism (per W. Benjamin, etc.).

I have been nostalgic for the nation-state since the mid to late 70s or so when corporations really started to be more powerful than governments (or, it started to be obvious). The nation state as model, though, has its own problems. I also find the US hard to categorize. We are certainly raised to think of it as a nation state but sometimes I wonder.

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lb

June 7, 2021

P.S. Do you really mean you think canon revision is an attack on the nation? I don’t. It’s just a struggle over the character of the said nation. I wouldn’t worry

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