Re: [Marxism] Wagner, Hegel and ISIS.

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

All nations are essentially "artificial," in that their existence comes
from often very specific historical experiences that create a shared sense
of identity.  The nation-state exists alongside other identities within and
transcending the present nation-states.

This view of German development is old hat (and surely oversimplified) . .
. .but I would be interested on how your take on ISIS puts them into this
model.

ML
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Wagner, Hegel and ISIS.

[Paddy Hackett via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Hi

It would seem that Wagner promoted German nationalism through his music. 
Through his music he promoted romantic nationalism. Much of his music created 
the folk myth that there existed a pure Germanic folk. This is, it would seem, 
evident in his famous composition the Ring. His anti-semitism may tie in with 
this too. He also, I believe, moved closer to Christianity in his musical 
creativity. As I understand it this was one of the developments causing 
Nietzsche to break with him.

Hegel's idealisation of the Prussian state was another form of the promotion of 
German nationalism. He promoted the Prussian state as the (Protestant) 
Christian state manifesting the Christian God. This was to be the "exceptional" 
state that is to be universalised spreading out in all directions --a 
proto-imperial state.

This legacy may have been a significant factor leading to Germany's role in 
both the 1st and 2nd world wars. Bismarck's realpolitik, the significance of 
the monarch, may have played a part too in the emergence of Hitler --redemption 
by the individual hero. The Nazi belief in the master race may have been a 
legacy from these developments.

We see how history impacts on the present. This legacy may have existed 
because, in a sense, Germany was, in a sense, an artificial nation. To create 
this nation state as an ethnic community a powerful ideology in the form of the 
music of Wagner and the philosophy of Hegel was required. Fichte, a 
nationalist, may have played an ideological role in this development too. 
However ultimately it was the needs of the emergence of Prussian industrial 
capitalism that was the fundamental dynamic underlying these developments. 

At the expense of over-stretching reality the ISIS phenomenon may be, in a 
sense, analogous to the above historical process.

Take Care
Paddy
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com