Preface continues.....


This concept, however, has to be nurtured,
renewed, continually enriched, and given substance. Such a concept, however, cannot be forced down the throats of a people as USSR and Yugoslavia examples demonstrate or allow the concept to derail a society as it did in Hitler’s Germany. At the same time, the concept cannot be amorphous, meaning all things to all people, and without a time-frame for its acceptance by the people constituting a nation.

Dr. Samuel Huntington, a Harvard professor, has recently
published a study (titled: Who Are We?), about the concept of the US as a nation and its viability. He argues that the US as a nation is rooted in the “American identity” which is constituted in two dimensions: salience and substance. Salience is the importance of one’s national identity over other sub-national identities (of language, region, profession, etc.), while substance is what one thinks he or she has in common and that which distinguishes this commonality from other peoples. He suggests that a people with both, a definite salience and rich substance, will remain a nation, while others will not. Hence, Dr. Huntington argues, the US has remained a nation because salience over the last two and quarter centuries has been clearly defined and renewed. He thinks that the most recent renewal emerged out of the American sentiment against the terrorist atrocity on 11 September 2001 (now abbreviated as 9/11). The patriotic sentiment upsurged amongst the American people, dwarfing all other sub-national identities.

American identity is also sustained by the substance rooted in “American creed,” or what in popular parlance is called the “American way.” Paraphrasing Dr. Huntington, the “American creed” may be identified as: (i) Anglo-Protestant work ethic (such as sticking to contracts, punctuality, verbal promise as bond, honoring IOUs, etc.); (ii) Christianity—religious belief in God, in good being rewarded, and evil being punished by Him; (iii) English language; (iv) rule of law and equality before it; and (v) individualism and the pursuit of happiness.

to be continued....