The Nation is a collective illusion. While it is a shared illusion, it is not universally shared. We each can speak of the Nation in the same terms, but we each mean and understand something different when we use those terms.
Both those inside and outside the Nation believe they know what the Nation is. To some the Nation is its military, to some its politicians, to some it is a building, or a document, or a place, or a flag, a certain food, a way of speaking, or manner of dress, a line on a map.
In truth, the Nation is none of these things because the Nation does not exist, except in the imagination of those who believe that it does. This does not make the Nation unimportant or meaningless. Even if you (personally) decide that the illusion is delusion, you will still live inside the beliefs of others.
The Nation can only be what we (collectively) make it. What do you believe the Nation is? What do you believe it should be? Will you work to make it what it should be?