verbena-19

The Return of the Nation State

Ending the big ‘ism
Tom Nairn
26 - 1 - 2006


John Ralston Saul's book "The Collapse of Globalism" provokes Tom Nairn to dissect identity-formation in Canada and Australia as the bedrock of different visions of nation, state and world in the 21st century.


“All men at God’s round table sit, And all men must be fed; But this loaf in my hand, This loaf is my son’s bread. The pine-tree is a king, He lifts high his steeple; But greater is the wheat — The wheat is a people.”

Mary Gilmore (1865-1962), “Nationality”, in Les Murray, ed., Hell and After: Four early English-language poets of Australia (2005)


Globalism is in trouble these days. Even the Economist has found itself driven to pedal harder in order to restore the faith (see its issue of 5-11 November 2005: "Tired of Globalisation...but in need of much more of it"). The time of easy prophecies is past. Though mostly written at earlier stages, John Ralston Saul’s book The Collapse of Globalism and the Rebirth of Nationalism (2005) remains a good guide to the process as a whole. It is well and lightly written, often humorous, and properly scathing about both the zealots and their politician-donkeys.

But some critical caution is also called for. Saul is writing about global-ism (or "globalisation" in the now standard journalistic sense) and not about what might better be described as "globality" — that is, those ways in which, since the 1980s, the globe has become more united, acquired common features and recognised important elements of common destiny and interest. The latter are indeed largely irreversible, and the author doesn’t claim otherwise. What he does assert, rightly, is that such truths bear little relationship to the political and ideological follies still being committed in their name — like the massed choirs of Rupert Murdoch, and the war dances of John Howard, George W Bush and Tony Blair.
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posted by Annamarie at 4:26 PM