Naționalismul. Fondul ideologic al reacțiilor europenilor la provocările actuale (Nationalism. The ideological background of the European reactions to current challenges)

The challenges that the EU is exposed today – prolonged economic crisis, violence arising from among ethnic and religious minorities that were not effectively integrated and the Russian offensive on the eastern border – remind us of the diversity that gives this space beauty and also instability. The terrorist attacks from Europe and the rise of extremist political movements reveal vulnerabilities and raise questions about the conditions that make possible such phenomena. The determinant of this situation is ideological. Since its inception, the European project encountered the existence of an ideology that began to dominate here two centuries ago: the nationalism. This is the most powerful ideology because it gives individuals the symbolic universe in which they can be liberals, social democrats/socialists or Christian Democrats. As a matter of fact, nationalism has managed to become the militant part, ideological in the narrow sense, of culture. Nationalism is not interested in “having” or “distribute”, but of “being”. Any impact experienced by the European society generates reactions coming from this ideological background, Europeans feeling the need to shelter through the use of the autoreferentiality recipe