Anyhow, a few days ago I posted something about nationalism on Facebook. It was a picture that said "Nationalism teaches you to take pride in shit you haven't done and hate people you've never met". Now, I agree with that 100%, it's not me shitposting. Then one of my cousins said that Nationalism and Chavism/Fascism are separate things and that you can be a Nationalist without the xenophobia that is taught by said ideologies. I said that I was not about to start a conversation via FB on the matter, but he insisted in knowing my opinion, and that led me here. So let's start this John Oliver Style.
Nationalism
People's way of letting you know that their dirt is better than yours.
First of all let's make something clear. What I quoted earlier was, word for word, what I posted on FB and it did not contain any mention or reference to Chavism, Fascism or Xenophobia. That being said, lets start to define Nationalism. I will not be using my own words yet to define terms since I do not want to be taken for someone clouded by his own points of view, so let's go with this definition I found on the internet since it's pretty broad and accurate
Nationalism is a shared group feeling in the significance of a geographical and sometimes demographic region seeking independence for its culture or ethnicity that holds that group together. This can be expressed as a belief or political ideology that involves an individual identifying with or becoming attached to one's nation. Nationalism involves national identity, by contrast with the related concept of patriotism, which involves the social conditioning and personal behaviors that support a state's decisions and actions.
So right there you can scratch Chavism off the list: Nationalism does not require you to support any government. And Fascism, though it makes use of Nationalism, need several other things to exist, such as Totalitarianism and Palingenesis.
So now you have to ask yourself, if Nationalism involves national identity, what is a nation? Is it the country you were born in? Is it something else? Because take this for example, take a man descended from Romulus and a woman descended from Reno, no other human being can be more Italian than this dudes, Mussolini himself would be jealous of how Italian these people are... and then they have a child born in the United States of America. Now, while feeling this sense of pride about your nation, should this child feel proud to be an American? An Italian? Both? All are correct answers, and it all depends on how you identify yourself as an individual and as a part of a group. Take the Wayúu for example, if asked whether they are Venezuelan or Colombian, they might simply answer that they are Wayúu, because that's how they feel, and it's ok.
Now that we know what Nationalism is an Idea, and that a Nation can be an abstract concept lets take a moment before continuing with why I'm against Nationalism to scratch that last word off the list. I wrote people, not groups of people. Take a Mexican dude, paying attention to Mr. Donald Trump waving his tiny little fingers as he belches forth insult after insult towards the Mexican people. That Mexican will no doubt have grounds to hate Mr. Trump, but unless every single American vote for him, he will not have grounds to hate every other American, and that's the point. Though I'll admit that, on this particular matter, the line CAN be a little blurry.
But moving on to the criticism, and the reason why I am against Nationalism... It's actually quite simple. Nationalism is inherently divisive! It highlights the differences, perceived or not, between people... And it's all based on an abstract concept. It's all subjective. You might argue that you can have Nationalism without Xenophobia, like my cousin said, and though we've established that Xenophobia is kind of a big word, I can agree that it is true; you CAN be proud of your "nation" without being an asshole to anyone else. But that is not the problem, the problem is not whether or not you can be nice, it's the reason behind your pride. The though of any singular thing might be good, just because you share the same Nationality with the dude that did/made it, kind of makes Nationalism just another sort of fanaticism. Think about it.
Let's take sports for example. Let's say you consider yourself a Real Madrid follower, you immediately have a rivalry with Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid followers and you will immediately be either a positive Nationalist or a negative Nationalist in your behaviour - that is you'll engage in boosting or denigrating behaviour; but somehow you will think in terms of victories and defeats and see history, especially recent history, as the endless rise and decline of power and every event that happen will seem to you a demonstration that your own side is on the upgrade and some rival is on the downgrade.
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Oh wait, did I say Nationalist? I meant Fanatic, yes.... Fanatic, that's what I meant.
And should you chose not to take my word for it, because, who am I right? Just a troll that know how to type... then take the word of George Orwell, because that's where I got that last paragraph from.
"There are, for example, Trotskyists who have become simply enemies of the U.S.S.R. without developing a corresponding loyalty to any other unit. When one grasps the implications of this, the nature of what I mean by nationalism becomes a good deal clearer. A nationalist is one who thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige. He may be a positive or a negative nationalist—that is, he may use his mental energy either in boosting or in denigrating—but at any rate his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations. He sees history, especially contemporary history, as the endless rise and decline of great power units and every event that happens seems to him a demonstration that his own side is on the upgrade and some hated rival is on the downgrade."
Yes, it was he who said that, I only put it in football terms. And wait, it goes on
"But finally, it is important not to confuse nationalism with mere worship of success. The nationalist does not go on the principle of simply ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest and is able to stick to his belief even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him."
So let put this in lamer terms, terms everyone can understand; lets talk football again... I was once told by a Barcelona fan, in my own house, to take my Juventus shirt of, because I need to wear the shirt of a team that is actually good. He was just being stupid. STUPID. Why? Because being the spoiled little shit he is, he disregarded all of Juventus's achievements; which are, just to name a few, Italy's most successful club of the 20th century and the most successful club in the history of Italian football. In 1985, Juventus became the first club in the history of European football to have won all three major UEFA competitions and, after their triumph in the Intercontinental Cup, the club also became the first in association football history - and remain the world's only one at present - to have won all possible confederation competitions and the club world title. Granted, Barcelona has been the best club in the past 10 years or so; but by disregarding hard facts about football's history, things he cannot deny or avoid, he was being a stupid little shit.
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Did I say stupid little shit? I meant to say Nationali... I mean, Fanatic! Fanatic, that's what I meant.
See my point now?
So what happens when 10 to 20 football fans get into an argument? A fight breaks out, and they end up spending the night in jail. The absolute worst? Some people may die, like it happened in 1985 in the incident know as the Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 people died, and over 600 more were hurt. A tragedy, no doubt, that should have never happened. But what happens when someone when a Nationalist takes action against a person because he believes himself righteously inflicting retribution upon someone he's never met? A clusterfuck called the July crisis which ended in WWI happens... As you can see, the body count is slightly bigger.
So, in conclusion, in my opinion Nationalism is bad for your health and that of others. And not only Orwell, but Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan, minds much greater than mine, were also Anti-Nacionalism... So there must be some truth to this, right? Am I telling you that you should not like the things your "Nation" have to offer or something? No. I like the food of my country, and if I ever live somewhere else, I will miss the food. But I will miss it because it's fucking tasty, not because it happens to be made where I was born. You need to like things and persons, and be proud of things and persons, based on quality.... Not passport! Quality. Because saying that one kind of food is better than another JUST based on where it was first cooked... Well... Then you're letting other people think for you, you're allowing your brain to stop functioning, and a nonfunctional brain is clinically dead.
And this last part goes straight to you, Bebe, this is MY opinion on the matter and I've arrived here not because I'm a lawyer. It involved a lot of reading and critical and rational thinking. I was certainly influenced by what one or other person said, but ultimately this my opinion... Which means you should have your own. It'd be cool if we end up thinking alike, but if not... Hey, man, it's cool also; we can agree to disagree.
Alright, I could not find a decent song to got with this, so I'm gonna end this with a song by Liquid Tension, because they're awesome.
