Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
Interpretation
Forgetfulness and historical errors play a crucial role in the formation of national identity.
Ernest Renan suggests that the process of nation-building is not just about remembering the past, but also involves a deliberate act of forgetting certain historical events and errors. This selective memory allows people to unite under a common identity, facilitating the creation of a cohesive national narrative that promotes solidarity and shared values, even if it means glossing over some uncomfortable truths or missteps in history.
In practice
In a discussion about national identity, one might reference Renan's thoughts on forgetfulness.
None of the miracles with which ancient histories are filled, occurred under scientific conditions. Observation never once contradicted, teaches us that miracles occur only in periods and countries in which they are believed in and before persons disposed to believe in them.
Man makes holy what he believes as he makes beautiful what he loves.
When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
He whom God has touched will always be a being apart: he is, whatever he may do, a stranger among men; he is marked by a sign.
Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things.
The talent of historians lies in their creating a true ensemble out of facts which are but half true.
Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from inside. We hold that key within our hands, and agency is ours to use it.
Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.
I grew up with a lot of people whose whole prime mover was dad rage. I never really had it - it always seemed so empty. It always seemed to be masking something else, which was really their own lack of initiative.
Only in England is the perversion of language regarded as a victory for democracy.
The aim of life was meat. Life itself was meat. Life lived on life. There were the eaters and the eaten. The law was: EAT OR BE EATEN. He did not formulate the law in clear, set terms and moralize about it. He did not even think the law; he merely lived the law without thinking about it at all.
So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.
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