Please Note: This Article is running as a Point of Contention, and therefore might express views that are, well, contentious. These posts are meant to be challenging and prompt discussion. However I do not facetiously put forth any arguments that I do not personally find compelling just to play “devil’s advocate”.
Patriotism and Nationalism: A Dangrous Game
Almost every country in the world has some holiday dedicated to the celebration of nationhood, a holiday dedicated to liberation or independence or the signing of some significant document or overthrowing of a monarch. It is a day to celebrate Patriotism, the unique greatness of one’s own native country, and the manifest blessing that being a citizen of (likely naturally born) of said nation confers.
Actual Photograph of the American Spirit
And Patriotism is fine, all things considered. There is nothing wrong with having an interest in. and respect for, your nation’s history. It is ok to be a proud descendant of and participant in a culture that has done great things. I have no issue with displaying a bit of sporting national pride now and then. I do so myself from time to time.
But beware the siren’s song of Nationalism, for Patriotism and Nationalism are dangerously cozy bedfellows. The difference between them truely is one of degree, not of type, and where the delineation occurs can be hard to determine.
So what is Nationalism? When does mere Patriotism stop being a benign celebration and become a harmful exclusionary ideology? Perhaps some real work examples will help:
Blind Mantras
I’ve heard “USA is #1”, or some variation on that chant, my entire life. From my earliest elementary school memories right up until the past 4th of July Weekend. The notion that the USA is the shining city on the hill and supreme in all significant regards above all other nations has been a given, an axiom, in my culture for my entire life.
And while the USA is undoubtedly only of the most influential and wealthy nations on earth, with a relatively high standard of living compared to much of the rest of the world, we are not “Number 1” by any meaningful measure. I am sure that almost everyone here is familiar with the famous Newsroom clip that expresses this sentiment rather forcefully, but it is too good not to share again:
And once again, I am not here to say the USA is not a great nation, but the mantra that “We’re #1” does little other than reinforce simplistic untruths so thoroughly that a piece of television, like that above, that merely vocalizes the reality, is deemed positively subversive when it airs.
Hero Worship
Patriotism seems to invariably involve some form of semi-deification of significant historical figures. In the United States we have the Founding Fathers, a group of men revered with an almost religious devotion. Think of how much semi-religious imagery and iconography we have of the Founders, and of Washington in particular. Think of how much time we spend pouring over their words to determine “what the Founders would have thought”. And think of the incredible deference we pay to the Constitution as the Founders intended it.
Ever notice how similar many of the Founding Father Murals are to the layout and composition of The Last Supper or many other painting of Jesus and his Disciples
This is perhaps the best example of how Hero Worship actually undermines the work done by the Heroes being worshipped. It is easily to see that the Constitution was written to be a living document, designed to change, designed to evolve, with the mechanisms for change built into the law itself. The Founders who wrote it knew themselves to be failable men, men of their time, men limited by their mortal minds and the era in which they lived. They had no delusion that their words could never be improved upon, no impression that future generations could not have better ideas, or that times might simply change and render their own notions outdated or restrictive. So they designed the document to change. And yet change it has not in a generation. And not because times haven't changes, and not because new issues have yet to emerge that rise to the level of Constitutional Amendment, but rather because we have begun to treat the Constitution as a religious document, a sacred text not to be altered or second guessed, penned by great and wise men in ages past. And because of that religious regard for the Heroes we Worhsip and their sacred text, the idea of pursuing a Constitutional Amendment to address any of the most pressing issues of our day is laughably distant from anything that is plausible.
Not to mention, getting into the habit of Hero Worship and granting unquestioning positive regard to patriarchal authority figures is one the most reliable predictive traits of how susceptible a population is to being taken over by a demagogic strongman. It’s not a trait a free people should ever want to foster.
God’s Chosen People/Land
This is particularly sinister and it makes my skin crawl every time I hear it. What I am not is religious, I do not believe there is a God to choose one country of mostly Christians to elevate over all of the other countries of mostly Christians. What I am, however, is a student of history, and any student of history should know what terrible ends being God’s Chosen Nation can be leveraged towards. We don’t even need to look to the ancient past or distant lands for good examples, we can look right here in our own land.
The United States was, once upon a not-so-long-time ago, seized with an expansionistic madness known as Manifest Destiny. This was the widely held, and aggressively pursued, belief that God granted this land to the United States of America and it was God’s will that the USA expand from the east coast to the west, from Sea to Shining Sea as we have all heard. This ideology was used to justify numerous wars of expansion and countless smaller acts of land claiming and homesteading on land that was, needless to say, already occupied. Untold numbers of Native and Mexican peoples died at the hand of Manifest Destiny as the US sought to expand to the Pacific Coast.
In somewhat more recent times the Godly US was contrasted heavily against the Godless Soviets during the Red Scare and the notorious McCarthy Era witch hunts. In current events you’d have to be blind to not see the Will of God being invoked by many who want to position the USA as the army of God against the villainous Muslims, justifying all manner of ill treatment and warmongering on those grounds.
Once you have decided that God’s invisible hand guides your nation and it’s people, that you are on his side, doing his will, it is not infinitely easier to justify what your nation does?
The Self Imposed Blindness
And all of these, the mantra’s that drill national excellence into our brains, the Hero Worship that elevates mere men to something more akin to Greek Demigods, and the Religious Mandate imposed by being God’s Self proclaimed Chosen people, all of these errors in judgment, all of these Nationalistic devices, they blind us to our faults, make us less likely to course correct when we do stray and more likely to vilify and and condemn whoever we oppose. After all those opposing the #1, Founded by Heroes, Chosen by God nation must be the bad guys. Right?
This is an enormous intellectual and moral liability. And this is why Patriotism makes me slightly uneasy. When moderate and kept in check, a bit of Patriotism is fine, but when allowed to flourish, unencumbered by the restraints of reason and reality, it quickly blossoms in Nationalism, and that threatens us all.
As with any drug, I only ask that you use Patriotism responsibly.
Nationalism, the belief that one nation is superior to another, seems to be more dangerous and has the greater likelihood of resulting in violence, however passive or aggressive that may be. Patriotism, while it can border on arrogance, leads to nationalism, much like enough beer can lead to one becoming drunk. #countrydrunk
One world Communism is determined to over throw the nation state.
Their battle against the Nationalist Chiang Kai Chek in China cost the lives of 84 million.
The one world communist revolution against the White Russians during the Bolshevik revolution cost the lives of 70 million.
I think one world communism is the real threat.