Myths about the Nation’s Future Sample Clauses

Myths about the Nation’s Future. Myths of ethnic election & the nation’s mission: The golden age myth works together with the myth of ethnic election in legitimizing the cultural and moral superiority of the nation.254 From the mythmakers’ perspective, the heroic nation living on a sacred land has a distinctive culture inherited from its fathers.255 Defining the nation’s inner dignity and heroic qualities, this culture enables the nation to revive the golden age. This nation is believed to have been chosen by God256 to perform a special mission in a golden age.257 Within the framework of the Turkish History Thesis, it is stated that since the Turkish nation is superior, it constituted the first civilization and then spread to the other parts 252 Smith, “The ‘Golden Age’ and National Revival,” 49-51. 253 Schöpflin, “The Functions of Myths and a Taxonomy of Myths,” 29-33. 254 Smith, Myths and Memories of the Nation, 267; Schöpflin, “The Functions of Myths and a Taxonomy of Myths,” 31. 254 Bruce Cauthen, “The Myth of Divine Election and Afrikaner Ethnogenesis” in Myths and Nationhood, 107. 255 Smith, National Identity, 50. 256Smith, “Chosen peoples: Why ethnic groups survive,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, 15:3, (1992), 441. 257 Schöpflin, “The Functions of Myths and a Taxonomy of Myths,” 31; Smith, Myths and Memories of the Nation, 69. of the world as it migrated from Central Asia. In this context, the Turkish nation established all great civilizations, including Chinese, Mesopotamian, Persian, Egyptian, and Anatolian civilizations.258 The mission of the Turkish nation, therefore, is believed to be spreading civilization throughout the world. In this regard, the myth of national mission is reproduced by portraying the Turks as bringers of civilization, and consequently, the architects of a kind of Pax Turcica, described as the state of peace and stability in places ruled by Turks.259 From this perspective, Turks conquer because of their mission to bring peace and civilization to the world, whichmakes them ‘benevolent conquerors.’ Moreover, the golden age and ethnic election myths erect a barrier between the divinely appointed community and others whom God did not favor.260 This idea of ‘being chosen’ is much deeper than ethnocentrism because of an “ideological kinship between religious myths of ethnic election and nationalist ideals of mission and destiny.”261 This makes the myth so durable, intense,262 and demanding in creating some moral obligations for the nation. This means the chosen nati...