Pinker discusses Counter-Enlightenment ideologies and the Age of Nationalism spanning the period 1789-1917 (pp. 238-244). Two anniversaries of this period are about to take place: next year is the anniversary of the start of the First World War in 1914 and the following year is the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. An important aspect of many conflicts is that negative perceptions of the other are regularly reinforced - anniversaries of historical events are a common way of doing this.
In 1815, Belgium did not exist. Its Dutch-speaking regions were part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while the French-speaking portion had been incorporated into the French Empire. Dutch-speaking Belgians fought under Wellington; French speakers fought with Napoleon ... Modern-day French speakers opposed a proposal to have a memorial ... ‘We don’t want to take part in this British triumphalism’ ... every year, in the French-speaking part of Belgium, fetes honor Napoleon ... [countering this] ‘Thanks to the British this foolish Napoleonic experience was brought to an end,’ Mr. Jacobs said, ‘it brought a hundred years of peace.’
The New York Times International Weekly in collaboration with The Observer (2013) 200 years after battle, hard feelings remain. Sunday October 13. pp. 1, 4.
Wilfried Martens. Nine times Belgian prime minister who held his bitterly split nation together while pursuing wider EU goals
The Times (2013) Obituaries. Wilfried Martens. Friday October 11. p. 61.
‘Don’t mention that we won the First World War’
‘Right way to honour our Great War dead’
Britain and Germany are the only two countries mentioned.
The Sunday Times (2013) January 13, pp. 1-2, 22
‘A war we had to win. The First World War, Max Hastings boldly argues in this magnificent volume, was not only a just conflict, but needed to be fought’
The Sunday Times (2013) Culture section. September 15, p. 37.
‘Stumbling towards the machineguns.
The causes of the Great War? Nearly every leader got nearly everything wrong.’
Macmillan, M. (2013) The war that ended peace: how Europe abandoned peace for the First World War. Profile.
The Times (2013) Saturday Review. October 12, p. 13.
‘Museum is guillotined because French past is too divisive’
‘... impossible to include a consensual presentation of the French resistance ... Napoleon ... Nazi-occupied France’
The Times (2013) Saturday January 5, p. 45
‘Bury him. Consigning Lenin to the grave would symbolise Russia’s escape from his legacy’
The Times (2013) Saturday January 12, pp. 2, 43
‘How American history made in Hollywood tortures the truth and reopens old wounds’ Lincoln; Zero Dark Thirty;
The Times (2013) Saturday January 12, p. 31
‘‘Political vacuum’ is sucking hope out of Ulster’
‘Nathan, 20, a warehouseman said: ‘It’s not just the flag: decision on parade routes are made to suit the nationalists ...’’
The Times (2013) Saturday January 12, p. 29
A letter to the Times – unpublished:
The Times (2012) ‘Salmond sets 2014 date in battle over referendum’ Wednesday January 11, page 1,
Sir,
Bannockburn in 1314, Flodden in 1513 – and a Scottish referendum in 2013 or 2014. The ancient dates have been repeated in your pages over the past few days (Jan 9, pp. 15, 20; Jan 10, pp. 2, 7; Jan 11, pp. 22, 25). Sadly, your pages also report how ancient dates of victory and defeat in other parts of the world inspire ugly remembrances in the present day. This is not how we should be thinking and talking in the twenty-first century. Scotland has a proud history of participation in five developments identified in Steven Pinker’s recent book as causing the decline of violence in history. Feminization: Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women’s Suffragette Foundation. Literature and the expansion of sympathy: Robert Burns’ ‘man to man the world o’er shall brothers be’. The Age of Reason: David Hume and the Scottish Enlightenment. ‘Gentle commerce’: Adam Smith. The Leviathan and international organisations: Andrew Carnegie and the Peace Palace in The Hague (later to house the International Court of Justice). Not ‘Scotland the Brave’ but ‘Scotland the Friend, Thinker and Social Improver’.
Gordon Burt
However the writings of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, born 25 January 1759, contain both nationalist and internationalist sentiments:
‘It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.’
[A Man's A Man For A' That]
'Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome tae yer gory bed,
Or tae victorie.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_Wha_Hae
'Scots, wha hae ...’ is an unofficial national anthem of Scotland ... the party song of the Scottish National Party ... commemorating the victory of Scotland over England in 1314 ... written in 1793, a disguised espousal of radical politics in the aftermath of the French Revolution.
Obama, the financial crisis, the Arab Spring and Libya
– the lessons of history and mathematical social science
Guns and nationalism
National Rifle Association: ‘ the longest-standing civil rights organisation in the United States ... proud defenders of history’s patriots.’
Gun culture in the USA
The right to bear arms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_keep_and_bear_arms
1689 England
Bill of Rights
1789 USA
the United States Bill of Rights (coming into law as the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States),
1917 Mexico
Article 10 of Mexican Constitution of 1917 states the following:
"Article 10. The inhabitants of the United Mexican States have the right to possess arms within their domicile, for their safety and legitimate defense, except those forbidden by Federal Law and those reserved for the exclusive use of the Army, Militia, Air Force and National Guard. Federal law shall provide in what cases, conditions, under what requirements and in which places inhabitants shall be authorized to bear arms."[13]
1976 Cuba
Chapter 1, Article 3 of the Constitution of Cuba states the following: "When no other recourse is possible, all citizens have the right to struggle through all means, including armed struggle, against anyone who tries to overthrow the political, social and economic order established in this Constitution."
North Korea
Chapter IV, Article 60 of the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) "The State shall implement the line of self-reliant defence, the import of which is to arm the entire people, fortify the country, train the army into a cadre army and modernize the army on the basis of equipping the army and the people politically and ideologically.
Switzerland:
Rules regarding firearms in Switzerland differ markedly from those in other European countries. Under Swiss law, all adult males who have received training in the Swiss armed forces are reservists who are required under law to keep their official firearms at home. According to the gun law of 1999 (larm99), automatic weapons like the Swiss army assault rifle have to be stocked separately of the bolt, which has to be in a locked place.
Switzerland has one of the lowest crime rates in the world*, and one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world. In recent times political opposition has expressed a desire for tighter gun regulations.[22] However in 2011, Swiss voters overwhelmingly defeated tighter controls that would have required all guns (including privately owned guns) to be kept in government arsenals.