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.
The question of souls is oldβwe demand our bodies, now. We are tired of promises, god is deaf, and his church is our worst enemy.
Nobody understands the nature of the Church, or the ringing note of the creed descending from antiquity, who does not realize that the whole world once very nearly died of broadmindedness and the brotherhood of all religions.
O Heaven, it is mysterious, it is awful to consider that we not only carry each a future Ghost within him; but are, in very deed, Ghosts!
What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
The longest tyranny that ever sway'd_x000D_ _x000D_ Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd_x000D_ _x000D_ Their free-born reason to the Stagirite [Aristotle],_x000D_ _x000D_ And made his torch their universal light._x000D_ _x000D_ So truth, while only one suppli'd the state,_x000D_ _x000D_ Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate.
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