Those loyal to their country regardless of its imperfections and who feel at one with their compatriots demand respect. However, there is a fine line between patriotism and nationalism which is often misunderstood.
The former French president Charles de Gaulle famously said, “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
Albert Einstein termed nationalism as an infantile “disease of the mind.” He had a point. A common refrain in kindergartens is ‘My mum is prettier than yours.”
Worryingly, that ‘disease,’ which many believed was on its way to eradication post-Second World War is spreading across the globe like wildfire heightening the risk of conflict, polarising citizens, fuelling racism and causing misery to targeted minorities.
The ‘peace and love’ era of the late 60s and 70s when honouring people’s differences was ‘cool’ has made way to suspicion of anyone who doesn’t look or act like us. John Lennon must be turning in his grave!
It was a resurgent nationalist spirit among certain sectors that oiled the ‘America First’ president’s path to the White House, not to mention the expansion of the white supremacist movement. America is now riddled with political, ideological and racial divisions resulting in a deadlocked Congress and growing social unrest.
Dark past
Moreover, it is generally believed that the motivation of most Britons who voted to leave the EU did so to put an end to the free movement of people and, as admitted by Prime Minister Theresa May because “Britons don’t feel they are part of the EU.” They want sovereignty and “control” over their laws, she claimed before Parliament voted to adopt all EU legislation wholesale.
Germany is another case in point. For the first time since the Second World War, the right-wing, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party has gained seats, dozens of them, in the Bundestag. Hate has once again been legitimised in a country still under the shadow of its dark past. A granddaughter of Adolph Hitler’s minister of finance, Beatrix von Storch, celebrated “the revolution.” Germany’s Jewish communities did not.
Spain is yet another victim of nationalism. Catalans seek their region’s independence from Spain and were willing to participate in a referendum deemed illegal by the Spanish government. Their fervour to stand against federal intimidation is tinged with romanticism, high emotion and, yes, raw nationalism, but most Spaniards consider their actions as ill-conceived at best, traitorous at worst.
The jury is still out on whether Briton’s divorce from the EU will incur a major blow to the economy, whereas it is very possible that a Republic of Catalonia, encompassing prosperous Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarrogona, would be constructed on bloodshed given the Spanish government’s uncompromising stance and would pay a very heavy economic price outside of the EU.
Recipe for instability
Nationalism has also driven Iraqi Kurds to hold a referendum on self-determination despite enormous pressure from the central government, Turkey and the United States which has called the vote “provocative and destabilising,” emphasizing that there is no prospect of an independent Kurdish state achieving international recognition.
The Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani raised his people’s hopes, encouraging them to vote ‘yes’ to their own state, which they overwhelmingly did. Now that the flag waving and dancing is over they’ve won nothing aside from the prospect of civil war. Baghdad has barred international flights from landing at Arbil and Sulaimaniya airports and plans to take over border crossings to the oilfields within Kurdish territory.
A glance at the big picture tells me that those who whip up nationalist sentiments may or may not harbour honourable intentions but many are guilty of doing their people a disservice.
The litmus tests are coming. Will this global nationalist wave deliver peace, security and prosperity as touted by its right-wing adherents or is rampant nationalism a recipe for instability and war?
Our parents and grandparents learned valuable lessons from two bloody World Wars, lessons that bore the United Nations as an international peacekeeping organisation, as well as the Treaty of Rome that created the EU. Sadly, those lessons are being forgotten.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Nationalism, an epidemic of hatred and division
Posted on October 3, 2017 by Linda S. Heard
Those loyal to their country regardless of its imperfections and who feel at one with their compatriots demand respect. However, there is a fine line between patriotism and nationalism which is often misunderstood.
The former French president Charles de Gaulle famously said, “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
Albert Einstein termed nationalism as an infantile “disease of the mind.” He had a point. A common refrain in kindergartens is ‘My mum is prettier than yours.”
Worryingly, that ‘disease,’ which many believed was on its way to eradication post-Second World War is spreading across the globe like wildfire heightening the risk of conflict, polarising citizens, fuelling racism and causing misery to targeted minorities.
The ‘peace and love’ era of the late 60s and 70s when honouring people’s differences was ‘cool’ has made way to suspicion of anyone who doesn’t look or act like us. John Lennon must be turning in his grave!
It was a resurgent nationalist spirit among certain sectors that oiled the ‘America First’ president’s path to the White House, not to mention the expansion of the white supremacist movement. America is now riddled with political, ideological and racial divisions resulting in a deadlocked Congress and growing social unrest.
Dark past
Moreover, it is generally believed that the motivation of most Britons who voted to leave the EU did so to put an end to the free movement of people and, as admitted by Prime Minister Theresa May because “Britons don’t feel they are part of the EU.” They want sovereignty and “control” over their laws, she claimed before Parliament voted to adopt all EU legislation wholesale.
Germany is another case in point. For the first time since the Second World War, the right-wing, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party has gained seats, dozens of them, in the Bundestag. Hate has once again been legitimised in a country still under the shadow of its dark past. A granddaughter of Adolph Hitler’s minister of finance, Beatrix von Storch, celebrated “the revolution.” Germany’s Jewish communities did not.
Spain is yet another victim of nationalism. Catalans seek their region’s independence from Spain and were willing to participate in a referendum deemed illegal by the Spanish government. Their fervour to stand against federal intimidation is tinged with romanticism, high emotion and, yes, raw nationalism, but most Spaniards consider their actions as ill-conceived at best, traitorous at worst.
The jury is still out on whether Briton’s divorce from the EU will incur a major blow to the economy, whereas it is very possible that a Republic of Catalonia, encompassing prosperous Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarrogona, would be constructed on bloodshed given the Spanish government’s uncompromising stance and would pay a very heavy economic price outside of the EU.
Recipe for instability
Nationalism has also driven Iraqi Kurds to hold a referendum on self-determination despite enormous pressure from the central government, Turkey and the United States which has called the vote “provocative and destabilising,” emphasizing that there is no prospect of an independent Kurdish state achieving international recognition.
The Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani raised his people’s hopes, encouraging them to vote ‘yes’ to their own state, which they overwhelmingly did. Now that the flag waving and dancing is over they’ve won nothing aside from the prospect of civil war. Baghdad has barred international flights from landing at Arbil and Sulaimaniya airports and plans to take over border crossings to the oilfields within Kurdish territory.
A glance at the big picture tells me that those who whip up nationalist sentiments may or may not harbour honourable intentions but many are guilty of doing their people a disservice.
The litmus tests are coming. Will this global nationalist wave deliver peace, security and prosperity as touted by its right-wing adherents or is rampant nationalism a recipe for instability and war?
Our parents and grandparents learned valuable lessons from two bloody World Wars, lessons that bore the United Nations as an international peacekeeping organisation, as well as the Treaty of Rome that created the EU. Sadly, those lessons are being forgotten.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.