It’s rare right now to hear the terms “nationalism” and “free speech” outside the context of partisan politics. These have become loaded ideas, ones increasingly used as pretexts for silencing opposition or doubling down on ironclad beliefs. The most extreme interpretations not only set the tone of a country’s political climate, but also influence how society functions. In the United States, both politics and society are radically polarized, with each side seemingly unable to comprehend the other, much less engage in conversation. This unfortunate state of affairs was on my mind when I began thinking about the spring issue, and wondering what question I could ask that would provide an entry point into how a country understands itself, and which legacies its citizens value—or conspicuously don’t.
Benedict Anderson famously defined nations as “imagined communities,” and part of the inspiration behind this issue was to explore the mythologies that bind a...
