ABSTRACT
One of the most commonly used distinctions in mapping out society is between structure and agency, between the institution and the individual. This is one of the many distinctions that on the face of it is obvious. Personal characteristics have a part to play, but even these, in terms of relationships with other people, are dependent on cultural variables. Nationality is a given cultural factor, sometimes positive and sometimes negative. Nationalism, as a simple concept, is rapidly undermined by the mixture of ethnic identities that make it up. There has been a tendency to associate race and nationalism, but even fascism with its fierce sense of racial hatred is quite separate from real nationalism, that sense of belonging to an ideal of cultural and historical as well as ancestral strength. When fostered, racism is a powerful form of self-identity and prejudice. The links between all forms of prejudice, against other nations or regions, against other ethnicities or classes, are close.
