Editing National myth (section)

== National identity ==

The concept of [[national identity]] is inescapably connected with myths.<ref>{{Citation |last=Cameron |first=Keith |title=National identity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aL2VArrJnzcC&q=%22nationalistic+myths%22&pg=PA106 |year=1999 |publisher= Intellect|location=Exeter, England |isbn=978-1-871516-05-0 |oclc=40798482 |page=4 |quote= Myth is inextricably linked with the concept of national identity }}</ref> A complex of myths is at the core of nationalistic ethnic identity.<ref>{{Citation |last=J. Kaufman |first=Stuart |title=Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Plw98pTk5wC&q=myth+of+%22eternal+nation%22&pg=PA25 |year=2001 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location= New York|isbn= 978-0-8014-8736-1|oclc= 46590030|page=25 |quote= The core of the ethnic identity is the "myth-symbol complex" — the combination of myths,...}}</ref> Some scholars believe that national identities, supported by invented histories, were constructed only after [[Romantic nationalism|national movements]] and [[Nationalism|national ideologies]] emerged.<ref name="Østergaard 2000 448">{{cite book|last=Østergaard|first=Uffe|title=Classical and modern social theory|year=2000|publisher=Blackwell|location=Malden, Mass.|isbn=978-0-631-21288-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PeGtsC2Hp4C&q=nationalist+myths+first+emerged+%22national+movements%22&pg=PA448|author2=Heine Andersen |author3=Lars Bo Kaspersen |access-date=8 September 2011|page=448}}</ref>

All modern national identities were preceded by nationalist movements.<ref name="Østergaard 2000 448"/>{{Verify source|date=February 2024}} Although the term "[[nation]]" was used in the [[Middle Ages]], it had usually an ethnic meaning and seldom referred to a state. In the age of nationalism, it was linked to efforts aimed at creating [[nation-state]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Østergaard|first=Uffe|title=Classical and modern social theory|year=2000|publisher=Blackwell|location=Malden, Mass.|isbn=978-0-631-21288-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PeGtsC2Hp4C&q=nationalist+myths+first+emerged+%22national+movements%22&pg=PA448|author2=Heine Andersen |author3=Lars Bo Kaspersen |access-date=8 September 2011|quote= We can, for example, certainly encounter term "nation" in the Middle Ages, but the word meant something completely different than in the age of nationalism, where it is inextricably linked with the efforts to create an associated state.|page=448}}</ref>

National myths foster national identities. They are important tools of [[nation-building]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oleinik |first=Anton |date=2019 |title=On the Role of Historical Myths in Nation-State Building: The Case of Ukraine |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0090599218000326/type/journal_article |journal=Nationalities Papers |language=en |volume=47 |issue=6 |pages=1100–1116 |doi=10.1017/nps.2018.32 |issn=0090-5992}}</ref> which can be done by emphasizing differences between people of different nations.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Schnabel |first=Albrecht |title=Conflict prevention from rhetoric to reality: Organizations and institutions |author2=David Carment |publisher=Lexington Books |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7391-0738-6 |location=Lanham, Md |pages=45, 46 |quote=overemphasize the cultural and historical distinctiveness of the national group [and its territory], exaggerate the threat posed to the nation by other groups, ignore the degree to which the nation's own actions provoked such treats, and play down the cost of seeking national goals through militant means.}}</ref> They can cause conflict<ref>{{cite book |last=Edward Brown |first=Michael |title=Nationalism and ethnic conflict |publisher=MIT Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-585-35807-9 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=67 |quote=... we do argue that tendency to breed conflicts is inherent to typical nationalist myths}}</ref> as they exaggerate threats posed by other nations and minimize the costs of war.<ref name=":0" />

The nationalist myth of a stable [[homeland]] [[community]] is explained psychoanalytically as the result of the [[complexity]] of relations within the [[modernity|modern]] external world and the incoherence of one's inner psychological world. Nationalist identity facilitates imagined stability.<ref>{{Citation |last= Brown |first= David |title= Contemporary nationalism: civic, ethnocultural, and multicultural politics |year= 2000 |publisher= Routledge |location= London; New York |isbn= 0-203-38025-8 | oclc= 43286590 |page= 24 | chapter= Contemporary nationalism | chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=uUPt5HiudwAC&q=%22nationalist+myth+is%22&pg=PA24 | quote = The nationalist myth of permanent, fixed, homeland community, derives its emotional power, according to psychoanalysis, from the anxieties generated by the fragility of the sense of self, the ego, in the face of both the complex ambiguities inherent in relationships with the external modern world, and also of the disintegrative incoherence of the inner, psychological world. In an attempt to escape the resultant anxiety, the individual engages in an act of self-labelling and self-construction which is essentially static, inserting him or herself into the institutions of society, so as to 'seek out a name' and thence attain an imaginary sense of stability [...].
}}
</ref>