The National Identity Is Made Up piece in the New York Times reminded me of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s words in Freedom From the Known, Chapter 6:
When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.
We don’t need a new myth. Literal interpretations of persistent myths are what got us into so much trouble in the first place.
What we need is awareness and education to encourage skepticism and critical thinking from an early age.