I also think that reinventing a national identity is a Herculean task.

Take Britain as an example. For hundreds of years, “Rule Britannia” was their national vibe. It wasn’t until the end of WW2 that the reality began to sink in that they weren’t the power that they used to be, and even then they couldn’t accept it and still can’t really accept it today. I mean, even during the Falklands War (1982), which they won, the attitude was, “Well, shit, we’re Great Britain, we can’t lose to fucking Argentina.”

This is the problem that nationalist parties in Britain (like perhaps Alek Yerbury’s National Rebirth Party?) will inevitably face as they try to grow: Only a part of British identity has been of the “cozy” stay-at-home variety. Another — and more significant — part of British identity has been to go out and conquer the world. And so a Britain that doesn’t go out there and fight monsters is arguably a totally different Britain that a lot of British people can’t fathom.

J.R.R. Tolkien captured this dual spirit beautifully in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. On the one hand, there’s the cozy Shire that you’d never want to leave. But then there’s the call of adventure that no true British person can easily ignore.

Right now, I feel that the British will also have to reinvent their national identity, and that’s after they successfully deal with their brown problem.

I’m talking about the British right now, but I could also be talking about Americans. We can’t just “decide” to have a new national identity. It’s so deeply rooted in the spirit of the people that just “making another one” would feel so fake and gay that no one would ever accept it. We may have to literally fight a war before it could ever feel real, which is exactly what happened from 1775-1783.