Nations selectively forget negative historical events to sustain national identity

Evidence

Since the nation is an imagined community (Anderson, 1991), the selective forgetting of negative events is part and parcel of the formation and maintenance of a national identity. Suspecting myself of being the victim of collective forgetting, I resorted to Wikipedia to find out whether Italy had concentration camps during World War II. It did. I never read about them in our history books, of course. In any case, in our books, Italy goes from being the victim of a dictator (Mussolini) to a heroic insurgent against the Nazis. Somehow, the remarkable cleansing operation of our very questionable history also worked well outside of our borders. To my delight, and horror, many of my American students think that Italy was an ally of the United States throughout World War II. We were the good guys! — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2087 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

What is necessary for people to have a sense of belonging to their nation? To reach optimal distinctiveness (Brewer, 1991), of course, and to perceive their nation as high in entitativity (Castano, Yzerbyt, & Bourguignon, 2003), but also to forget many of the events of their country’s history (Renan, 1882). Since the nation is an imagined community (Anderson, 1991), the selective forgetting of negative events is part and parcel of the formation and maintenance of a national identity. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2087 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Collective identity is based on the (selective) process of memory, so that a given group recognizes itself through its recollection of a common past. From this perspective national identity is a specific form of collective identity, a belonging, which is both a way of being, of social existence, and a longing. Identity thus conceived fluctuates between two poles, “romantic longing” and “terror.” “Romantic longing” involves a hungering for identification with common members, those one takes to be like oneself because social representation has suggested they are. “Terror,” by contrast, is prompted by the inevitable failure to fulfill the membership drive (Goldberg, Musheno, and Bower, 2001). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 124 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Amnesty and concealment, not active remembrance, are the historical norm in Europe — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 1211; Wealthy nations can forget wars while poor nations inherit their explosive residue — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 690; National museums omit annihilated groups, erasing their claim to the nation — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 135 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Selective forgetting of negative events sustains national identity formation #corroborates (0.98) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2087
• Selective forgetting of a nation’s negative history is required for national identity #corroborates (0.97) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2087
• National identity rests on selective memory and oscillates between longing and terror #expands (0.92) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 124