Why Left Nationalism?

To begin, I think it is necessary to define our terms.  By nationalism, I mean the tradition of civic nationalism, based on a sense of belonging to a collective community of equal citizens under a shared system of law, in contrast to ethnic nationalism, which is based on a sense of belonging stemming from common ethnic heritage and custom.  By left, I mean principally the commitment to a form of collective life based on the principal that we take care of our own people.  My political vision is rooted in the primacy of community solidarity over atomic individualism, and the primacy of social responsibility, duties, over and above individual rights.  While not denying individualism or the importance of individual rights, these concepts can only have a determinant meaning within a particular, historically conditioned and collective network of shared language and practices.

This blog is not intended to set forth the gospel truth, but as a platform for the process of thinking, and re-thinking what it means to be a member of a national community, and what it means to owe reciprocal duties to one another.  This blog presumes holism:  the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  This blog also presumes that, like Cain, we are our brothers keepers.