Herder’s Folklore Model: Creating Identity Through Spectacle

The modern nation state was created after Herder’s 1777 plea to unite the 10 German tribes behind a set of stories (folklore or more accurately folksongs) typifying Germanness. The Brothers Grimm, Goethe and later Wagner answered that call. And 90 years later the first unified German state was created. Identity is wholly a function of stories.

MAGA, likewise, creates community out of grievance, fear and memes.

Source: Our Disinfolklore Universe

The historical precedent that explains everything. Herder’s 1777 call to unite German tribes through folklore produced, 90 years later, the first unified German state. “Identity is wholly a function of stories.” The same mechanism operates today: MAGA creates community out of grievance, fear, and memes. The spectacle is not new — it is the oldest nation-building tool in Europe, now weaponised for nation-destroying purposes.

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