Professional paper
War as a Source of Identity and Certainty in the (Post)Modern Society
Bruno Šimleša
Abstract
In this paper I have tried to show that war creates or intensifies national identity that, due to its comprehensiveness and its dominant nature, offers a fixed identification reference frame. Considering that such stability is very rare in the modern society (due to the erosion of religion, science and society in general, i.e., the erosion of the traditional sources of certainty), the state of war is one of the truly rare remaining sources of certainty on a national level. Even though it’s obvious that war creates certain existential uncertainty, it is (at least, up to a point) toned down by the certainty caused by the feeling of the unified national identity.
Keywords
certainty; identity; nation; war; postmodernism
Hrčak ID:
179527
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2001.
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