The Question of Nationalism

On declaring independence from Nationalism (that is unless your Palestinian and facing dispossession in the face of Zionist colonization (Angry Arab seems to assert this about once a week), or Iraqi and facing dispossession in the face of rapacious global capitalists allied to ethno-separatist in the north and south.) I'm not so sure that the issue of nationalism is as black and white as much of the post-colonial tradition would have us believe. 

Thoroughly unsorted thoughts in my own mind- but I can recognize the contradictions in my own mental processes between believing that nationalism is a totalizing an homogenizing discourse that obliterates all difference, and my sympathy for nationalist movements in opposition to to imperialism. And in the history of Iraq, the big ideological contest has been between the "Iraqists" and the Pan-Arabists. The Iraqist were inclusive of Shi'is and Kurds in their conception of national identity, whereas the pan-Arab national socialism of the Ba'th closely resembles other "national socialisms" we have known.

Its seems that nationalism is malleable enough to be defined in all sorts of ways, including ways that respect labor and the environment.   

Perhaps redefining the meaning of national symbols to meet contemporary needs is the more efficacious political strategy than a frontal assault on something that enjoys as much cultural hegemony as modern nationalism. Perhaps not. I don't know.