‘We Knew Who We Were’: Ecstatic Nationalism and Social Solidarity

Abstract

In an article written in 2004, Mary Kaldor quoted a friend from Nagorno Karabakh who had been in Britain during the summer of 2002 when celebrations marking the Queen’s 50th anniversary on the throne were in full swing. Asked what he thought of British nationalism, the friend had replied, ‘That’s not nationalism … nationalism is about passion’ (2004: 168). In comparing the ‘new nationalisms to be found in places like Nagorno Karabakh or Bosnia-Herzegovina’ with the ‘spectacle nationalism …[of the west, involving] consciously, mediated construction’ (ibid.), Kaldor fails to acknowledge what these (apparently) moribund, inauthentic, flag-waving processions might mean for both those that take part and the wider population as a whole.