Primordialism is an ancient form of nationalism that is rooted in mono-ethnic relations. As opposed to modernists who promote an imagined, mental conception of nationalism that is possible between multiple ethnic groups, primordialists assert that nationality is based on a common gene pool which creates physical attachments in a singular people. Beyond imagined community asserted by modernists, primordialists believe blood relations tie individuals together through the bonds of kinship, clanship, and tribalism founded on communal inheritance. Do you believe primordialism (mono-ethnic groups connected through blood ties) or modernism (multi-ethnic groups that feel an affinity for each other through created traditions, e.g. The Pledge of Allegiance) is a more cohesive form of nationalism?<\/p>\n
As Schivelbusch discusses in his 4th chapter, \u201cBack to the Land\u201d, ((Wolfgang Schivelbusch, \u201cBack to the Land,\u201d in Three New Deals – Reflections on Roosevelt’s America, Mussolini’s Italy, and Hitler’s Germany, 1933-1939)\u00a0<\/span>(New York: Picador, 2006), 104))<\/span>\u00a0primordial nationalism played a large part in the rise of authoritarian regimes of the 20th century. After liberal politics and laissez-faire capitalist economies seemed to lead to the crash of 1929, rejection of industrial and international mechanisms that went along with them was the norm thereafter. To Schivelbusch, loss of public trust in democracies because of the Great Depression was essential for charismatic leaders like Mussolini and Hitler to establish rule through authoritarianism in the 1930s. ((Schivelbusch, Three New Deals, 106)) Nations turned inward instead of outward during national revivals in place of imperialist expansions. The quest for Lebensraum<\/em> and Fascist colonization would only seem possible after domestic rebuilding and communal reconnection.<\/p>\n In an attempt to imitate the past successes of simpler, pre-modern times regionalism, decentralization, reagriculturalization, and the \u201corganic citizen and society\u201d were all promoted as a return to primordial ties of the homeland in the \u2018back-to-the-land\u2019 movement. The Nazi ideology \u201cBlut und Boden<\/em>\u201d (blood and soil) epitomized this ideology — eugenic authenticity of a naturally superior Volk <\/i>living on collectively-worked territory. ((Schivelbusch, Three New Deals, 112)) Handicrafts and labor tied to the land were promoted as the basis of an autarkic economy. Mechanical and artificial constructions of industrialization were deemed part of a \u2018pseudo-community\u2019 that must be reversed for a return to a more elemental, natural national life. ((Schivelbusch, Three New Deals, 120)) After a complete return to pre-industrial ways of life was eventually rejected as industrialization was increasingly seen as an irreversible mass movement, \u201ca Utopian vision of a new, crisis-resistant synthesis of town and country, industry and idyll\u201d ((Schivelbusch, Three New Deals, 126)) was promoted, espoused particularly by the concept of a non-specified laborer (farmer-factory worker) and Roosevelt\u2019s term \u2018rural-urban industry\u2019 which he believed \u201cwould be crisis-proof and crisis-resistant\u201d. ((Schivelbusch, Three New Deals, 127)) Do you agree with Roosevelt\u2019s assertion that the most stable, balanced, self-sufficient industry would effectively maintain a bureaucratically controlled equilibrium of natural and artificial products?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Primordialism is an ancient form of nationalism that is rooted in mono-ethnic relations. As opposed to modernists who promote an imagined, mental conception of nationalism that is possible between multiple ethnic groups, primordialists assert that nationality is based on a … Continue reading