Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

38 THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
1. A nation is a human group wherein universal education gives rise to a
homogeneous mass culture that claims to be common and accessible to all
its members.
2. The nation gives rise to a perception of civil equality among all who are
seen and who see themselves as its members. This civil body regards itself
as sovereign, or demands political independence in cases where it has not
yet achieved that independence.
3. There must be a unifying cultural-linguistic continuum—or at least some
general idea of such a continuum—between the actual representatives of
the sovereign power, or those aspiring to it, and every last citizen.
4. In contrast to the subjects of past rulers, the citizenry that identifies with
the nation is conscious of belonging to it, or aspires to be a part of it, with
the aim of living under its sovereignty.
5. The nation has a common territory about which the members feel and
assert that they are its sole owners, and any attack on it is felt to be as
powerful as a threat to their personal property.
6. The aggregate economic activity within the boundaries of this national
territory, after the achievement of its sovereignty, was more closely
interconnected, at least until the late twentieth century, than its relations
with other market economies.
This is, of course, an ideal depiction in the Weberian sense. We have already
implied that there are scarcely any nations that do not harbor or coexist with
cultural and linguistic minorities, whose integration in the dominant superculture
has been slower than that of other groups. Where the principle of
civil equality has been slow to apply to them, it has led to constant friction.
In exceptional cases, such as Switzerland, Belgium and Canada, the national
state has formally maintained two or three dominant languages that had
developed separately and remained unbridgeable. 23 Furthermore, in contrast
to the proposed model, certain productive and financial sectors have eluded
the rule of the dominant national market and have been subjected directly to
global supply and demand.
But it should be reiterated that only the post-agrarian world, with its
altered division of labor—its distinctive social mobility and thriving new
communications technologies—has produced conditions conducive to
linguistic and cultural homogeneity, leading to an identity and self-awareness
23 This has been done while combining other cultural elements, and with a high
degree of decentralization and citizen involvement in politics. On the Swiss example, see
Hans Kohn's old book, Nationalism and Liberty: The Swiss Example, London: Allen &
Unwin, 1956; and also the new work of Oliver Zimmer, A Contested Nation: History, Memory
and Nationalism in Switzerland, 1761-1891, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.