National identity is not only imposed from ‘above’. All over the world, people cheer for their national football team, celebrate national holidays, or proudly buy ‘home-grown’ produce.
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Nation states appeal to the imagination. They claim ultimate authority, but simultaneously they have something arbitrary about them.
Nation states often use the same set of official symbols, which give the impersonal ‘state’ something tangible and concrete.
Modern nationalism is obsessed with authenticity, that which is real and true.
Nation states are built on the ideal of a united ‘people’. A shared national culture.
Nationalism is always concerned with borders. Those borders can be literal, since a modern state is defined as the highest authority within a certain territory.
Although some traditions are recent inventions, many are so deeply ingrained that they form the backbone of entire societies.
Dance has become a billion-dollar industry, with major entertainment companies calling the shots. Massive dance festivals are held all over the world, featuring an international elite of DJs flying from party to party.
In the Netherlands, in the 1990s, gabber emerged in Rotterdam as a new branch of electronic dance music, joining styles such as house and techno that were already well-known in Europe.
Liberation is ingrained in electronic dance music. It’s crafted to make you dance freely. Drums and rhythm have always been the ritual tools of dance, and that remains true in our time, albeit now generated through electricity.
For centuries being a mum or dad was not a choice at all, simply how things were ‘supposed to be’. The way parenthood itself is viewed has also changed over the years.
In addition to their biological family, many people have one they’ve chosen for themselves: people you’re not related to, people who understand, help and love you.
See them whizzing across the city on their fast bikes: his a men’s model, hers a woman’s. Both wrapped in a puffer jacket and with matching trainers. The dreary ‘ANWB couple’ in trendy jackets.
Someone in sneakers is a familiar scene, but still somewhat remarkable. Less than half a century ago, it would have been unthinkable to walk around in the street like that wearing sports shoes.
'As long as your hair is right' sang the Dutch band Vulcano in 1983. A history of hairstyle.