Modernism

The time has passed, when nationalism was closely connected to Romanticism. The nationalism of today values reality. It is a live expression of sociology as a science, a field for the implementation of social hygiene, a laboratory to discover psychological and social diseases. This scientific research used for discovering the sources of evil presents itself as the only positive value. The main obligation for the Youth (that Youth, which, enlightened by the light of reason, feels without any hesitation a deep respect for the historical fate of our Fatherland, and already treads the path of development and of the future) in the eyes of Neo-Albanianism is the following: the processes of research and definition should be based on a scientific framework, but also on a philosophical and clear body of national ideals. An intellectual is aware of the greatest and most terrible danger: if he wishes to start a journey in the infinite and chaotic sphere of his own fantasy, he will be in danger of falling into error and self-disappointment. This sphere contains only fake worlds and dead values, which bring only sleepiness and "genial utopias." Science is illumination. This is the world of reality. We shall not define our political life through romanticism and fantasy. The problems of life and the mysteries of the future need that illumination. We should turn our eyes towards life, which means to see life as it is, not as we want it to be. Life needs a solution. We cannot find this solution in a national fantasy, because it is hidden deeper in the national spirit. This is our starting point: to shed light on the deep causes of the social anarchy we have inherited from the past, we should hold on to the torch of sociological science. And this is our reference point: to build the Albania of tomorrow, enlightened and civilized, on the ruins of yesterday's Albania---an Albania that is not stuck in history, but civilized.

Ahmet Ersoy is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Bogazici University, Istanbul.
Maciej Gorny is Research Fellow at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and Centre for Historical Research in Berlin Vangelis Kechriotis is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Bogazici University, Istanbul.