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Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

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60 THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE<br />

As Anderson pointed out, one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> major developments leading up to <strong>the</strong><br />

age <strong>of</strong> nationalism was <strong>the</strong> printing revolution that began in Western Europe at<br />

<strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fifteenth century. This technocultural revolution weakened <strong>the</strong><br />

status <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sacred languages and helped spread <strong>the</strong> languages <strong>of</strong> state administration<br />

that would eventually become national languages. <strong>The</strong> position <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

clergy, whose use <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sacred languages was <strong>the</strong>ir main symbolic possession,<br />

declined. <strong>The</strong> clerics, who had attained <strong>the</strong>ir status and even earned <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

living thanks to <strong>the</strong>ir bilingualism, lost <strong>the</strong>ir historical role and were forced to<br />

seek o<strong>the</strong>r sources <strong>of</strong> income. 55<br />

<strong>The</strong> symbolic properties inherent in <strong>the</strong> national languages <strong>of</strong>fered<br />

an expanding market <strong>of</strong> fresh opportunities. Flourishing book production<br />

required new specializations and new intellectual endeavors. Philosophers,<br />

scientists, and, before long, writers and poets abandoned Latin and turned to<br />

French, English, German and o<strong>the</strong>r vernaculars. <strong>The</strong> next stage, <strong>the</strong> rise <strong>of</strong><br />

journalism, would hugely increase <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> readers, and thus <strong>the</strong> corps<br />

<strong>of</strong> writers catering to <strong>the</strong> public. But <strong>the</strong> real catalyst <strong>of</strong> national language and<br />

culture was <strong>the</strong> state, whose nature kept evolving. To promote production and<br />

compete with o<strong>the</strong>r national economies, <strong>the</strong> state apparatus had to take on <strong>the</strong><br />

task <strong>of</strong> educating <strong>the</strong> populace and turn it into a national enterprise.<br />

Universal education and <strong>the</strong> creation <strong>of</strong> agreed cultural codes were<br />

preconditions for <strong>the</strong> complex specializations demanded by <strong>the</strong> modern<br />

division <strong>of</strong> labor. <strong>The</strong>refore every state that became "nationalized," whe<strong>the</strong>r<br />

authoritarian or liberal, made elementary education a universal right. No<br />

mature nation failed to declare education compulsory, obliging its citizens to<br />

send <strong>the</strong>ir children <strong>of</strong>f to school. This institution, which became <strong>the</strong> central<br />

agent <strong>of</strong> ideology—rivaled only by <strong>the</strong> military and by war—turned all<br />

subjects into citizens, namely, people conscious <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir nationality. 56 If Joseph<br />

de Maistre maintained that <strong>the</strong> executioner was <strong>the</strong> mainstay <strong>of</strong> social order<br />

in <strong>the</strong> state, Gellner's provocative insight was that <strong>the</strong> decisive role in <strong>the</strong> state<br />

belonged to none o<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> educator. 57 More than to <strong>the</strong>ir rulers, <strong>the</strong> new<br />

national citizens became loyal to <strong>the</strong>ir culture.<br />

Yet Gellner's argument that this has turned <strong>the</strong> modern state into a<br />

55 On <strong>the</strong> rise and consolidation <strong>of</strong> national languages, see Michael Billing, Banal<br />

Nationalism, London: Sage Publications, 1995, 13-36.<br />

56 <strong>The</strong>re are not enough empirical studies <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> nationalization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> masses in <strong>the</strong><br />

Western nations. One exception is <strong>the</strong> relatively early book by Eugen Weber, Peasants into<br />

Frenchmen: <strong>The</strong> Modernization <strong>of</strong> Rural France, 1870-1914, Stanford: Stanford University<br />

Press, 1976.<br />

57 Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, 34.

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