Martha Nussbaum Quotes
The U.S. has always understood itself to be united around political principles and not around culture, whereas the nations of Europe have a much more traditional conception of nationhood that is connected to romanticism, which thinks of religion and culture as ingredients of nationhood.
Nussbaum, Martha. The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age. Harvard University Press, 2012.
This mode of national definition is characteristic of many nations of Europe as well.
This parochial and sectional point of view was held much more strongly by the South and to a great extent, still is. We are all conflicted by wanting and American culture (that can be adopted by the world in globalization) and also wanting local customs, cultures, norms, policies and thought patterns to exist. However, there is inevitable conflict between the two, so it is a constant American source of debate, ebb and flow.
This statement was more than a proverb but a popular political doctrine as well which had for years destabilized the Balkans. From the Serbian point of view, if a Serbian family moved to Bosnia or another country, their family land and their decedents were Serbian and under the governance of Serbia. Where there were enclaves of Serbs, they and the Serbian Government considered that land Serbian. This attitude even widely prevailed into the 21st century and led to the U. S. War with Serbia over the Serbian attempts to control parts of neighboring countries where Serbs were in the minority. The Serbs were not unique in this respect. Germany, in WWI, had seized territory from France because there were large enclaves of Ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland. The Ancient Romans likewise asserted the protection of Roman Citizens anywhere in the known world.
Martha Craven Nussbaum is an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she is jointly appointed in the law school and the philosophy department. She has a particular interest in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, political philosophy, existentialism, feminism, and ethics, including animal rights. She also holds associate appointments in classics, divinity, and political science, is a member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, and a board member of the Human Rights Program. She previously taught at Harvard and Brown.
