They proclaim, in fact,
that certain nations are the "natural enemies " of certain others, by
hating which they are only fulfilling the national function of
self-realisation. By such arguments, which have no genuine ethnological
foundation, the false prophets of nationalism are filling Europe with
the racial prejudice of artificial Kelts, artificial Poles, and
artificial Teutons. Of course race hatred between Slav and Teuton is no
more "natural" than family hatred between Jones and Robinson; and even
if it were, even that is if the cultures of two neighbouring races were
mutually exclusive, it could still be argued--as it must in any case be
argued--that no nation is racially pure. The last "Pole" I met proudly
professed that the hatred of Russia was _in his blood_. Yet he was born
in Bessarabia, and it was therefore not surprising that his facial type
was distinctly Roumanian; he came, that is, if race means anything at
all, of a Graeco-Latin stock, and his hatred of Russia, which seemed to
be the beginning and the end of his programme of "Polish nationalism,"
was the result of a few years of neglected education. Half the
conflicting "Nationalisms" of Europe are programmes of artificial
hatred, the propagandists of which may actually be of the same blood as
their opponents; a single generation suffices for the manufacture of the
racial enthusiast, which is often completed by a modification of the
family name. Even Greeks and Bulgars are frequently of common descent.
When a Macedonian village changes hands the Greek Karagiozes has been
known to develop into the Bulgarian Karagiozoff; and a Mazarakis will
boast a racial incompatibility with his second cousin Madjarieff. The
same process for the manufacture of nationalism may be detected at the
other end of Europe: at Mons of glorious memory there was a Walloon with
the good old Walloon name of Le Grand, whose grandfather had been an
equally enthusiastic Fleming with the good old Flemish name of De
Groodt.

True nationalism may indeed be differentiated by the absence of this
artificial element of ethnological hatred. True nationalism is simply
the feeling for the small independent community, a movement for the
autonomy of the local group. No true manifestation of the nationalist
movement in Europe is ever opposed to other nationalisms; but all alike
are involved in a desperate political conflict with their common enemy
Imperialism.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 76: Spinoza,