Nation and Nationalism

Translated by Egon Albrecht from:

http://www.pnr.pt/comunicados/nacao-nacionalismo

An ideology can be understood basically as a system of ideas and beliefs which are aimed, on one hand, to explain human behavior in collective life, and on the other, establish a guideline of behavior in accordance with such ideas and beliefs. However, this process is a dangerous reversal: the ideological construction, not understanding that is dependent on reality but rather the latter that is subject to that. Unfounded, because in reality, ideologies are abstractions that claim to explain; not being grounded in the real, the natural, the historical. Ideologies are as a fiction, a story that is imposed on the reality intended to replace it.

One of the main mystifications produced by the revolutionary mentality is the contractarian conception of the Nation. It would be no more than an association established by the conclusion of a contract and therefore subject to the sovereign will of the members, ie, the “citizens” – atomized individuals, alienated from any natural group, devoid of any link with the past and enthusiastic fans of the trilogy of 1789. Designed therefore as a mere association, the Nation-contract can be mortgaged, “managed” as a grocery store, sold sliced or simply closed by the closure, just needing for the “contractors” of the day so deliberate.

Now the Nationalist conception opposes frontally to this ideological and fanciful account imposed by liberals and Marxists.

For Nationalism, the Nation is a reality, natural and historical, anterior and superior to the elements that compose it; it is a physical and moral heritage, slowly built over the centuries by the efforts and sacrifices of a long succession of generations who share the same blood and the same spirit. It is the land and landscapes; fields, villages and cities; Temples and cemeteries; factories and museums; religion and customs; language and literature; history and traditions; art, technology, science; etc. – It is all that we were, we are and we want to be; it is our essence and collective work; it is here that we find the means for our protection and realization. The Nation, whose founding cell is the family, is a continuous whole, a body of horizontal solidarity – among its current members – and vertical – between the present generation, the past and the future. It isn’t owned by any group, not even a generation, but a sacred heritage which imposes on us, as beneficial owners, the equally sacred duty to conserve, enhance and pass on to generations to come. Family of families, the Nation is a living organism, made up of various elements and organs, which, ordered based on complementarity and solidarity, acting for the unit and welfare of the whole.

Since 1974, Portugal has been dismantled by the action of two ideologies: Marxism and liberalism. If, at first glance, they seem adversaries, they know very well, when necessary, to act in unison or share in an exemplary way the private covert in transforming societies they capture. It should not therefore seem strange that the paradigm of our time consists precisely in the application of a savage capitalism in the economic sphere and Marxism in the cultural field.

The time is grievous, but our old Nation still can and should be restored; can and should live and prosper, spiritually and materially; can and must continue – and continue only Portuguese. But make no mistake: these objectives can only be achieved if the Nation is the supreme value in the temporal order, if individual interests and groups are subordinated to the Nation’s interests, if all the issues are being regarded and decided exclusively from the angle of National interest. One way only meets these conditions and leads to those objectives: it is the path of Nationalism.