Imperialism, nationalism, patriotism and education. Ideologies, practices and epistemologies

Based on the current resurgence of nationalism, this article analyses a theory popular in nationalist circles. According to this theory, nationalism is the ethically legitimate alternative to imperialism, and it is assumed that the entire history of the West has been marked by the opposition between these two political orders, which today culminates in the fight against the EU, the UN Security Council, or the Human Rights Court. In the article it is claimed that this theory is possible only because it uses terms inappropriately and ignores half a millennium of history, namely that of ancient Greece and the Roman Republic. It is argued that nationalism and imperialism are not opposed, but related, and that historically the opposition to them is patriotism. Patriotism is based on the virtues related to the common good and the love for the free republic, thus on the human heart, while nationalism is based on the soul and the identification with a cultural thesis of belonging that is independent of the political form: it also works in dictatorships. Finally, not only the education system but also educational research is suspected of complicity with nationalism, and on this basis, epistemological liberation is claimed.