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ian Values. Even if such values are not applicable to one’s perception of national identity, the socialization process through various institutions such as schools and media will fit their knowledge of nationhood into the government-constructed notion of nation.

 

This will bring about the phenomena known as “ideological consensus”, a condition in which the ruling group’s ideas are loosely accepted and reproduced by the governed as part of their “natural reality of everyday life”, [12] in which one’s knowledge of national identity slowly distorts itself to fit into the “reality” that the dominant government discourse has created.

 

The “Asian Values” can thus be seen as hegemonic discourse, the dominant discourse in society, which attempts to suppress the counter-hegemonies, opposing experiences and ideologies contrasting the hegemonic discourse, for example Singlish, and downplay the importance of these counter-hegemonies in one’s knowledge of national identity, gradually limiting what one knows and constructs of national identity to that of the dominant discourse.

 

The notion that there is an objective, unchanging essence of national identity is thus problematic, as it is inadequate in accounting for individual experiences, and indeed mutes such experiences through socialization, causing one’s understanding of knowledge of national identity to be limited by what the government-constructed national identity narrates.

 

4.0 Possibilities of Representative National Identity – Postmodern Perspectives

So far, I have assessed the problems of the government-constructed national identity based on the notion that such an identity is inadequate for its citizens. This suggests that there is an “authentic” and objective identity out there, one that encompasses all the differences in experience, one truly representative of its citizens. However, is this even possible?

 

Postmodern perspectives bring up problems of the objectivity of the self itself. Hill states that “since unconscious, social, ideological and cultural forces permeate consciousness, the self is decentered and dispersed” [13] , meaning that the notion of an authentic centre of thought is non-existent, and all thoughts are influenced by social phenomena and predominant ideologies. In effect, a national identity itself serves no epistemic value. Since a national identity seeks to represent the multitude of selves in the nation, the notion that the “self” is itself constantly changing seems to debunk the need for national identity, since national identity will always fail to account for changes and differences which themselves are constantly changing. As Paula Moya asserts, “social and cultural identities, it is argued, are similarly fictitious because the selves they claim to designate cannot be pinned down, fixed, or definitively identified,” [14] meaning that any iteration of national identity will prove inadequate in explaining experiences and norms shar本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。