As a purely economic system, socialism is a lousy way to run a large scale economy. Workers would do better than in the English system at the time (The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848) because there were more workers than bosses and the majority would rule. Socialism, as envisioned by Marx and Engels was, ideally, a where everyone would share the benefits of industrialization. According to Professor Liah Greenfeld, nationalism may be collectivistic or individualistic depending upon whether or not the community or the individual is considered to be more important. It develops differently in different national communities under different historical circumstances. The relationship of the members of a nation is, theoretically, an equal relationship between citizens. The relationship between the members of an empire is an unequal relationship between the ruler and the subject. The nation is unlike an empire, which is held together by military force, by police, sometimes by religion as with a god-king. The greater literacy, and the improved communications and transportation rendered by industrialization make the nation possible. A nation differs from a tribe in that it is larger. The original use of the term nationalism refers to elite groups, but in modern useage it refers usually to a very large group, sometimes as large as an empire. Liah Greenfeld, Professor of Sociology at Boston University has defined nationalism as “an image of a social order, which involves the people as a sovereign elite and a community of equals”. It is similar to tribalism, and like the family, is held together by a sense of kinship. Nationalism is a sense of identity with the nation. Humanity may be evolving to a stage when exploitation of others and promotion of self-interest over-and against-that of others will yield to a new way of being human, in which humanity seeks to promote the well-being of the whole, and to restore its broken relationship with the one planet on which all people live. That the world community can speak about shared values and of universal human rights to a large degree follows from the fact that huge portions of the planet formerly lived under imperial rule. The world has been shaped and molded by the creation and break-up of Empires, forming linguistic and cultural alliances that have survived the negative aspects of cultural and political domination. As a matter of fact, Empires have established peace and stability for vast numbers of people. The United States regards the defense of democracy and of freedom as fundamental to its identity and mission in the world, yet it has also engaged in imperial pursuits. However, democracies have also engaged in imperial acts.
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