It seems that folks living in a country that is on the losing side of a war suffer certain consequences. One of those consequences is an ambiguity about the value of folks’ national identity. How do people find a source of identity when the original source—and still the thing that binds them together linguistically and economically—has been disenfranchised by the outcome of a war? Conversely, how do people speak of a national identity with pride yet avoid the impression that they embrace all the values of the nation that as a result of a war has been effectively demonized around the world?
We just spent a few days in the Berlin area with a friend who is German. She recounted the story of a television campaign in Germany some time ago the aim of which was to inspire a sense of civil and political responsibility in the citizenry of Germany. How to do so? Tap into the human need for identity, for association with or membership among a greater social body, and lead people to identify with the nation of Germany. The tag line in the campaign was “You are Germany.” Since your identity as an individual and the identity of the nation are somehow intertwined, it is then your duty to do what is good for Germany.
Yet for Germans there may be an inherent ambiguity in German national pride. Remember, in Germany (and the United States, to name one other) the spirit of Nazism still exists. This spirit posits a “pure” German race violently opposed to other races and other nations. Thus to speak with pride of one’s “Germanness” makes one liable to misinterpretation by others, and especially by those who have poignant or polarized memories of World War II and Nazi Germany. Yet people cannot live without some source of identity. So what are Germans to do?
The hosting of the World Cup in Germany brings this matter to the fore. German flags are everywhere. A new pride in Germany arises from the desire for Germany’s World Cup team to win the final. Our friend tells us, as we look around at all the flags flying on cars, out of windows, and carried down the street, that such a display of flags—and thus German pride—is unusual. Yet there it is. Just like the famous zeal of Brazil, the staunch pride of France, and the powerful chanting spirit of Korea the German sense of collective identity rises to the surface during this time of athletic competition. Shall we not applaud this uprising of spirit, of identity, of zeal in the German nation? What better place is there for people in this country—the seat of the EU, the wellspring of engineering excellence—to lodge their sense of enduring selfhood?
The (Neo-) Nazis want to stage demonstrations. Should they be allowed? Germany is as interested in the protection of free speech as the United States, but here the Nazi organization remains a rot that threatens to corrupt any good sense of identity. This problem is acute when the world is watching the country during the World Cup. The world would be offended by many of the principles of the Nazi movement; yet it is a world that also tends to divide itself along lines forged by the embrasure of national identity, of which the Nazi movement is but an extreme (and extremely negative) example.
Germany finds itself on the cutting edge of a dilemma that all of us in an age of “nationalism” ultimately face. If our identity is derived from an entity whose existence depends on worldly success and power, what happens to our identity when that power is rendered ineffective? What happens when evil or ineptitude prove the source of our identity to be fallible? What happens when the source of our identity is defeated in worldly terms—especially when the defeat comes at the hands of others over and against whom we have chosen to identify ourselves? This is a question rarely faced by citizens of nations with power while they possess their power. But for citizens of defeated nations or nations in-between, the dilemma must be excruciating. It must drive people to ask if there is a source of social and collective identity that does not depend on worldly power. Is there?
~emrys
*see later post entitled "An Amendment"
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