Nostalgic Thoughts

EXPERIENCE has taught me that people who continue to retain links with members of their extended families often do so purely on the basis of nostalgia. More often than not, and this applies particularly to those of us who are considered outsiders or black sheep, we grow apart from certain individuals and find that we either dislike them or have very little in common. Nostalgia is never enough in itself to bind one person to another through the course of an entire lifetime.

I would compare this to the sentimentality that nationalists express in relation to the nation-state or a certain geographical territory. Growing up in a particular country can undoubtedly shape an individual to the extent that he or she feels very passionate about it, but over the course of time you would expect that nostalgia to dissipate in the face of harsh reality. Loyalty to a specific territory is one thing, but what happens when that territory has changed to the degree that it no longer reflects the values that it possessed during one's childhood? In other words, that the symbolic trappings of nationhood have become a mask for something altogether different.

Just as a favourite uncle who meant so much to us as a child is eventually viewed through more critical eyes, often diminishing or overcoming the mythology that surrounds him, so too does a sudden political awakening lead to the realisation that the nation-state and its opportunistic pageantry has become an estranged foe with whom it is necessary to break relations.

This process works in reverse, too, and the aunt who now finds our views objectionable may be equated with the manner in which the nation-state views the blind patriot as nothing more than something to be exploited. We all live and learn, of course, but to cling to something when it is no longer recognisable is futile. We must forge new relations, secure our own unique territories and consign anything which either threatens or weakens us to the past.