The Virtualization of National Passions
The state of mind called « nationalism » seems to be closer nowadays to fandom than to some political doctrine. This is especially true for the younger generation of online socialization, having grown up in a world of global deinstitutionalization and fluidity. Using examples of web-nationalism in Bulgaria collected over the last years through media analysis, followed in some cases by online and face-to-face interviewing, I will argue that the new media constellation has largely enhanced such development. More generally speaking, it is linked to the cultural turn that has transformed culture from a mode of being into one of possessing.