I know that I am beginning a blog on a very controversial thing – what is a nation? Lots of answers have been given, and trying to list all or many of them would be absolutely outside the scope of this blog. But I want to be honest with you – I want you to know, from the very beginning, what I am thinking about when I speak about «nations». I’m not going to give a definition myself now, but instead I am going to quote some people that know a lot more than me, whose views on the issue usually inspire me (especially the last two people).

First, as you can guess from the name of this blog, I should quote Renan’s observation, not because I like all of Renan’s thought (I don’t), but because I want to stress his views on the need to permanently work for the nation’s existence and for the well-being of their members: Continue reading →