Anderson's definition of nation is as follows:
- Nation is imagined (Mental)
A nation is imagined, meaning that it is rooted in people's psychological activities rather than being materialistic.
- Nation is limited
The boundaries of a nation are limited, and any nationalist intentions and claims only apply within these limited boundaries.
In a nation, there is no Cosmic universal.
- Nation is Sovereign
A nation possesses inherent and self-evident sovereignty.
It is important to note that the subjectivity of a nation is an extension and collection of individual subjectivity.
Slaves cannot form a nation.
Among the three definitions mentioned above, the second point - the limitation of nationalism - is the most inspiring to me.
In the field of ideology, when faced with the contradiction between the reality of human suffering and the beautiful dreams, philosophers have always come up with their solutions.
Among them, there are always a few philosophers whose ideological systems are highly respected by the world, and these systems generally claim to have a priori universality:
"Future generations, as long as you follow my ideological system rationally, you can solve all problems, from ants drinking water to supernova explosions."
Jesus believed that the Mapuche people in South America were also lambs of God; Lenin proclaimed that the proletariat should liberate the whole world; Neoliberalism is concerned about whether robots should be granted human rights in the future.
Christian universalism, communism, and neoliberalism are the three ideologies with the most followers in history. Their applicability boundaries are infinite, and even aliens and robots can naturally integrate into them. However, this Cosmic universal and its rational a priori principles are contradictory.
"Reason is the last resort for humble, changeable, and passionate humans."
With reason, we can reason, argue, and analogize, thus extending the words of prophets to the entire universe. However, when prophets summarize their "truth" based on reality, reason is not involved.
The power of reason is undoubtedly immense. Today's extensive knowledge of natural philosophy is all thanks to human instrumental reason. However, unfortunately, when it comes to humans themselves, reason no longer works.
Hume's second question: How to derive 'Ought' from 'Is'? points out the biggest flaw in the entire human speculative system:
Human value rationality does not exist - that is, reason cannot guide the derivation of human values.
Without value rationality, humans are unable to derive any truths in terms of values and life perspectives. Any "truth" at the level of values is either a conditional quasi-"truth" or a false "truth."
After understanding this, we can feel the sorrow of humanity.
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Humanity calls for the truth of ideology, and the more universal the truth, the more it is sought after by humanity.
However, the more universal an ideology is, the more fundamental bugs it possesses, destined to encounter failure in practice.
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Now let's look back at nationalism as an ideology.
Nationalism is a posteriori. Nationalism always follows practical experiences before ancestral laws, and ancient customs before charters.
It is more like a recognition of the value criteria formed by natural people, rather than the divine words of prophets.
Summary
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Question: Is nationalism a good ideology?
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Answer: Nationalism is not very good, but it is the least bad.