Individualism and nationalism are often held to be competing or even
mutually exclusive concepts. Hannah Arendt, for instance, in The Origins
of Totalitarianism, argues that a focus on the rights of the individual could
have provided an antidote to the kind of racist nationalism established by
the Nazis. According to this logic, the more firmly individual rights are
defended, the less dangerously nationalist the resulting society will be,
because individuals’ goals and desires will not be subordinated to those
of a larger group. Studies of the work of Ernst Jünger have confirmed
this assessment of the importance of the individual as a defense against
nationalist forms of repression. Critics who have alleged the complicity of
his work with the rise of National Socialism typically point to the ways in
which his work eradicates the individual. Yet, the status of the individual
subject, both in Jünger’s work and within the cultural history leading up
to National Socialism, may not be so clear-cut. The critique of the subject,
leading to a recognition of the limitations of the individual, is a broader
phenomenon that is arguably the fundamental unifying basis of European
modernism and not just an element of right-wing movements. At the
same time, the defense of the individual may actually be compatible with
Jünger’s nationalism, indicating that individualism and nationalism might
in fact be linked projects within a larger process of identity construction.