--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 00b
+title: Romania's dumb nationalism
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+date: August 24, 2013
+tags: asphalt
+---
+
+I was discussing in the footnote of a previous article that, I quote:
+
+> The only novel taught in Romanian schools in the first eighth grades is, as
+> far as I know, “Baltagul” (“The Hatchet”), written by one of the first
+> Romanian communist writers, Mihail Sadoveanu. The novel attempts to make a
+> parallel with the myth of Isis and Osiris, at the same time introducing
+> traditional Romanian themes and motifs. I suppose the only reason they keep
+> it in the curriculum is a dumb sense of nationalism.
+
+The fact is, I was at least partially wrong by assuming that the only (or the
+main) reason for that is the "dumb sense of nationalism" of Romanians. The
+fundamental reason is in fact Romania's lack of relevant literature, which
+makes this nationalism dumb in the first place. And unfortunately, it's not the
+only aspect that does.
+
+<!--more-->
+
+As you might have probably noticed from my name, I am Romanian and proud to be
+so, only not for the reasons invoked by most Romanians. What are these reasons,
+then? you might wonder. Let me, for the purpose of enlightening you, enumerate
+a couple of them.
+
+First of all, Romanians like to see themselves as an opressed nation from a
+historical point of view. They like to believe that the Dacians who inhabited
+Romania's geographical space 2000+ years ago were somehow "oppressed" by Romans
+after Trajan's Dacian wars, when in fact historical sources show that Dacian
+rulers were nothing but meddlers into the affairs of the Roman Empire, so they
+were bound to get burned sooner or later[^1]. Served them right, I say.
+Romanians also view the so-called "Romanian states"[^2] as oppressed either by
+the Hungarians or by the Ottoman Empire, and as gatekeepers for the so-called
+"gates of Europe", a fact which is false, given that the Ottoman Empire invaded
+Vienna without any resistance from the "Romanian states". What's more
+outrageous is that Wallachian and Moldavian rulers were nothing but docile
+puppets put to rule by the Ottomans themselves, that is, until the Russians
+intervened and gave us a kick in the ass to give the Turks a kick in the
+ass[^3].
+
+TL;DR, the history of "Romanians", a nation called so by the guys that came up
+with this dumb nationalism in the first place in the first half of the 1800s.
+Inspired by an adventurer in the second half of the 16th century called Mihai
+Viteazu ("Michael The Brave"), who messed with European powers (much like
+Burebista before him), attained power over the three "Romanian states" for a
+short time and then got murdered, they decided that since there are people who
+speak the same language in all the three regions, these just had to be united.
+Who cared about the ethnic and cultural diversity of the entire northern
+Balkans and who the heck cared about the opposing interests of said regions and
+powers that influenced them? Apparently no one, so they somehow managed to pull
+two unions, which some Romanians [opposed at their respective times][1]. But
+I'll have to give them credit, they managed it, it was something pretty damn
+big, unlike many previous "victories".
+
+Secondly, Romanians have this bad habit of taking various famous persons of
+Romanian origin and calling them Romanian. Local newspapers made a campaign
+called "De ce iubesc Romania" ("Why I love Romania")[^4], related to this.
+However, Ștefan Odobleja, the scientist, was *not* Romanian, since he
+discovered proto-cybernetics in France. Henri Coandă was *not* Romanian, since
+he did most of his work in France, Belgium and Germany. Eugène Ionesco was
+*not* Romanian, as he spent most of his life in France. Victor Babeș, a
+well-known name in biology and medical sciences, was *not* Romanian, as he made
+most of his breakthroughs abroad. Need I go on? Sure, they might have been born
+in Romania, they might have had Romanian citizenship, but the fact is, Romania
+never did anything to help them make their discoveries. The most it did was
+give them a kick in the proverbial butt and drive them abroad, where these
+highly gifted people could innovate. But no, not in Romania, because Romania
+always had other priorities. Sure, this country has been, is and most probably
+will be a source of great minds. I'm really not sure, I think it must be a
+fluke or something.
+
+Despite all this, and I feel need to repeat myself, I am proud to be Romanian.
+I was born and raised here, I lived a fairly good life so far, so, as a
+personal view, Romania is a pretty cool country, although sometimes it doesn't
+really seem much of a *country*. Also, I've met Romanians that are good, honest
+people and I'm sure I'll meet many more, which gives me the hope this nation
+(also known as "we") has the chance of reedeeming itself, and that is mostly by
+growing up and out of our stupidity and acknowledging our sorry past.
+
+[^1]: Don't believe me, read for yourself and prove me that my interpretation
+was wrong.
+[^2]: Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania, the latter actually part of
+Hungary, Habsburg Empire and so on.
+[^3]: And to our surprise this we did, without much help from the Russians.
+[^4]: An incorrect Romanian title, since it lacks diacritics. The correct
+spelling would have been "De ce iubesc România". And y'know, we're talking
+about the name of the country they claim to love. It's not malice, it's sheer
+incompetence, as per Hanlon's razor.
+
+[1]: http://www.vestul.ro/stiri/5505/%E2%80%9Eunirea%E2%80%9D-n-a-fost-decat-o-anexare-deghizata.htm
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