Nationalism & Patriotism
“Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. ‘Patriotism’ is its cult.” – Erich Fromm
Nationalism is an evil. It causes wars, its roots lie in xenophobia and racism, it is a recent phenomenon – an invention of the last few centuries – which has been of immense service to demagogues and tyrants but to no-one else. Disguised as patriotism and love of one’s country, it trades on the unreason of mass psychology to make a variety of horrors seem acceptable, even honourable. For example: if someone said to you, “I am going to send your son to kill the boy next door” you would hotly protest. But only let him seduce you with “Queen and Country!” “The Fatherland!” “My country right or wrong!” and you would find yourself permitting him to send all our sons to kill not just the sons of other people, but other people indiscriminately – which is what bombs and bullets do.
Demagogues know what they are about when they preach nationalism. Hitler said, “The effectiveness of the truly national leader consists in preventing his people from dividing their attention, and keeping it fixed on a common enemy.” And he knew who to appeal to. Goethe had long since remarked that nationalistic feelings “are at their strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.”
Nationalists take certain unexceptionable desires and muddle them with unacceptable ones. We individually wish to run our own affairs; that is unexceptionable. Most of us value the culture which shaped our development and gave us our sense of personal and group identity; that too is unexceptionable. But the nationalist persuades us that the existence of other groups and cultures somehow puts these things at risk, and that the only way to protect them is to see ourselves as members of a distinct collective, defined by ethnicity, geography, or sameness of language or religion, and to build a wall around ourselves to keep out “foreigners”. It is not enough that the others are other; we have to see them as a threat at very least to “our way of life”, perhaps to our jobs, even to our daughters.
Einstein called “nationalism an infantile disease, the measles of humanity.” These are harsh words but unless we are prepared to honestly look at our outmoded beliefs, our unquestioned ideologies and ourselves, there may be no hope for us.
For those who don’t know, there is a distinct difference between nationalism and patriotism. Patriotism is love for ones country, but accepting that it has its faults,
Nationalism on the other hand is the love of ones nation above everything, even our own humanity, above morality, and sometimes above common sense. Nationalism is often disgused as patriotism, or starts out as patriotism.
Here latly, I have noticed an incressed view of nationalism. My favorite example of this is the famous quote (Michael Moore is a Traitor!!!) I’ve seen both Democrats in the Clinton administration, and Republicans in the Bush administration, use such ploys to attack any one who activly threatens their agendas. They disguise Nationalism as patriotism, and therefrore claim that anyone who activly disagrees with the leader is “unpatriotic” or “Hates America!”
Add that to some parts of the “patriot” act, (which is being justified threw nationalism disguised as patriotism [hence the name]) which allow federal agents to go through Library records to be able to incriminate some middle eastern man based on their reading habits. Notice I said middle Eastern man, because we all know, that only middle easterners can be terrorists, just ignore what you heard about the uni-bomber, and the Oklahoma city bombings, both AMERICANS by the way. This is an example of the Xenophobia that breed’s nationalism.
Am I the only one who finds this frightening?
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But, as terrible as nationalism is, it pales in comparison to when religion gets involved.
Theocratic Nationalism is the entity that justifies mass slaughter.
Take Manifest destiny for example. When The Idea of Manifest destiny or the belief that it was Gods divine will that America control all of North America, it fueled the rapid expansion of the Untitled States and justified the slaughter of countless Native American tribes.
When God mixes with nationalism, the belief is taken beyond the borders of the nation, and becomes Imperialism. It’s the mass insanity fed by tyrants seeking to make atrocities honorable in the name of God. It feeds off of media outlets and spreads threw mass psychology.
This is what Suzanne is talking about when she talks about separation of church and state. While religion offers morals, it also offers justification of mass murder of those who do not worship as you do, or, if it gets bad enough, every one else, Indiscriminately, simply because a few people claim gods will.
Antilla The Hun (Mr. Jack)
K. Marx Says: June 17th, 2005 at 7:43 am
Well written. I’d like to add religious beliefs to the list of things people ignore due to nationalism. Imagine the number of Catholics that ignore the Vatican’s policies against recent U.S. military action because “it’s their duty as Americans.” I wonder what it would be like to put an elected official above God.
Mr. Jack Says: June 18th, 2005 at 6:57 am
Putting leaders above God has been done in civilizations in the past. Egyptian Pharos were a good example of such, as is Alexander The Great who claimed to be the Son of God. And yes, I was getting to a religious point on nationalism, which in its self is an entirely different, but equally, if not more, destructive and evil force, the only problem I seem to have is finding the words to express it. It’s hard to describe, but sooner or later, I’ll perfect my draft of my thoughts on this entity, I will add them to this post, and I do look forward to your thoughts on this subject K. Marx.
Antilla The Hun
Andrew Says: June 23rd, 2005 at 11:54 pm
great comments….is it just me or has this web site been taken over by the left? This artical seem aimed directly at the Bush administration. I think we can all aggree (some with pride and some with shame) that Bush has definatly mixed religion with politics and the calls for Anti-american have never been so loud and so obsurd.
Can I get another order of freedom fries?
Mr. Jack Says: June 24th, 2005 at 5:15 am
No, no no no no no! You misunderstand! This is not aimed at Bush! I think since thats all we’ve been hearing from the democratic party latly is bush bashing, it’s natural to assume somthing like this is no different, but indeed it is.
This is aimed at media outlets and anything else claiming you must support your nations leaders no matter what. To say that this is political bashing is like saying Aristotle’s book on political theory has liberal Bias! I’m merely trying to teach people the dangers of their beliefs, and to not deal everything in absolute black and white, so as they do not give in to everything they hear from their side, this goes for both liberals and conservatives. I’m saying don’t follow your beliefs to an absolute, or else bad things are bound to happen.
Anonymous Says: June 27th, 2005 at 1:53 am
One thing that confuses me about the political targeting you mentioned was, why, did they go after the Dixie Chicks when they made the comment “I’m embarrassed that President Bush is from Texas” yet they don’t go after people like Green Day for their album “American Idiot” which is a clear middle finger to the whole administration. And why not go after system of a down for “BOOM!” and “BYOB”?
Circe Says: June 27th, 2005 at 6:39 pm
Quote of the day. Rumsfeld on the Iraq war.
“It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”
– Rumsfeld, quoted by USA Today, in March 2003.
Antilla The Hun Says: June 28th, 2005 at 6:48 am
Circe, did you see the clip recently of Rumsfeld on Fox news saying the insurgency’s “Last Throws” could last 12 years?
Antilla The Hun Says: June 28th, 2005 at 6:51 am
Anonymous: Could it be that the Bush Administration doesn’t care about Green Day and System of a down, because as far as I know, mostly Angry teens listen to that kind of music.
ankur Says: February 11th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Great article
Even India is suffering from the rise of nationalism and whats even worse is that people think it is good
ccbhomes Says: February 12th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Be nationalist to a benevolent, liberty abiding republic does not cause wars.
Being nationalist, to tyrants and malevolence does!
Admittedly, the Nationalism of Germany circa 1939 is perhaps the example of which Mr. Attila speaks. However, this is certainly not the case of the United States of America. For all our faults, it is still the best show on Earth.
And worthy of a tad bit of Nationalism.
ccbhomes Says: February 12th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Mr. Antilla, I have just read the entire post. It lacks, in too many ways to list, the cohesiveness of thought to make it credible as an argument. It is merely ranting and too vague conceptually.
One could insert multiple different words in the place of the word “nationalism” and it would read equally as well. (Which is not saying much)
Try inserting in the place of “Nationalism”
1. “Gore’s Global warming campaign.”
2. “Iran’s foreign policy”
3. “Hugo Chavez’s Socialism”
Do you really think an honest belief in our constitution can share the same page as the above mentioned examples? In your argument you have found negative examples of nationalism and refuse to acknowledge the good ones.
jonnycake Says: September 11th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Im writing an essay on nationalism vs. patriotism. this article is good helped me out. thanx!
Adam Says: January 20th, 2010 at 6:49 am
Mr. Jack,
Written mostly by the very liberal A.C. Grayling.
I think you should place quotation marks around the major part of this article and note the author’s name, don’t you?
Adam
Young Conservative Says: January 20th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
I agree with most of the things said on here, but I must point out that only when religon is twisted that it causes problems. True Christianity, for example , teaches that you should convert those’s whom you can by example, not by shoving it down others throats. But, when mixed with government, that’s exactly what happens.