35958 ¥291 The best efforts ...

Q&@

OF LOCKE,
JEFFERSON, MILL, AND
THEIR COLLEGUES HAVE FAILED
TO PROVIDE US WITH A FAST AND EASY SOLUTION
TO SUCH CONUNDRUMS. Holding democratic elections won't help,
because then the question would be who gets to vote in these elections - only
German citizens, or also the millions of Asians & Africans who want to immigrate to Germany?
Why privilege the feelings of one group over another? Likewise, you can not resolve the Arab-Israeli
conflict by having 8 million Israeli citizens & 350 million citizens of Arab League nations vote on it!
For obvious reasons the Israelis wouldn't feel committed to the outcome of sùch a plebiscite.
People feel bound by democratic elections only when they share a basic bond with most other voters.
If the experience of other voters is alien to me, and if I believe they don't understand my feelings and
don't care about my vital interests, then even if I am outvoted by a hundred to one I have absolutely
no reason to accept the verdict. Democratic elections usually work only within populations that have
some prior common bond, such as shared religious beliefs or national myths. They are a method to settle
disagreements among people who already agree on the basics. Accordingly, in many cases liberalism has
fused with age-old collective identities and tribal feelings to form modern nationalism? Today many associate
nationalism with anti-liberal forces, but at least during the 19th century nationalism was closely aligned with
liberalism. Liberals celebrate the unique experiences of individual humans. Each human has distinctive the
feelings, tastes and quirks, that he, she or it should be free to express & explore as long as they don't hurt
anybody else. Similarly, 19th-century nationalists such as Giuseppe Mazzini celebrated the uniqueness of
individual nations? They emphasized that many human experiences are communal! You cannot dance a
polka or waltz by yourself, & you cannot invent & preserve the German language by yourself. Using word,
dance, food & drink, each nation fosters different experiences in its members, & develops its own peculiar
sensitivities. Liberal nationalists like Mazzini sought to protect these distinctive national experiences from
being oppressed & obliterated by intolerant empires, & envisaged a peaceful community of nations,
each free to express & explore its communal feelings without hurting its neighbours.

19 sep 2019 - bewerkt op 23 sep 2019 - meld ongepast verhaal
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