Please explain to me the importance of "nationalism"...

[dolo amber]

Well...? :shrug:

[Fenris]

1. Define it

Are we talking the idea of a nation or the idea that one's nation is superior and should be the top priority?

[Maddy McCall]

3. George Orwell described it best. (Link added)

There is an essay, and I can't remember the name of it, but he compares patriotism to nationalism. It's a fantastic essay...I assign it to my students every World Civ II semester.

Here is the essay: "Notes on Nationalism" http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat

It really is a must-read.

[dolo amber]

5. Either

I mean really...it's dirt...who cares?

[saltpoint]

2. See under: 'Third Reich'

Strong, often obsessional identification with one's Father- or Mother-land, to the exclusion of any persons or ideas not seen to be so aligned.

[Bouncy Ball]

4. Well it's important because

well, see, because...

WELL FLAG FLAG FLAG FLAG FLAG FLAG FLAG!!!!

So there.

[dolo amber]

6. Seriously...next to religion, what causes more trouble?

Someone explain to me how unintentionally being born on a certain patch of soil is so goddamn important...I don't get it.

[Blind Tiresias]

7. nationalism is important ...

Don't let the neocon fascists shit on what nationalism is. It is not about waving the flag, or singing patriotic bullshit songs, or reciting the "pledge of allegiance". It is about our experiment in democracy and freedom, and doing whatever it takes to preserving it for ourselves and our children, then extending our hand to others who want to join our community. It is about upholding our collective values.

Nationalism is a good thing, when it's done right. It requires a special amount (not too much) pride, but most importantly it requires our vigilance, and respect for others. It isnt saying 'hooray America!!' for whatever the hell we do, rather it requires diligence and sometimes criticism. Needless to say the Bush crew and their legion of freepers arent nationalists, they are makeshift patriots.

[neweurope]

8. For me nationalism is a heightening of patriotism.

I call myself a patriot - but because patriotism only too often changes to nationalism ("my country right or wrong" - one of the most stupid and the most dangerous sayings ever) it would be better to get rid of patriotism... Wars would be a hell of a lot more difficult to fight if we didn't feel patriotic/nationalistic. Anybody remember "solidarity of the peoples"?

George Bernard Shaw:

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it."

"You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race."


--------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[kk897]

9. I don't understand it.

I know a lot of DUers feel patriotic and patriotism is supposed to be a good thing, and nationalism is sort of patriotism taken a little further...

...but it all is of a piece to me. It seems weird to love boundary lines or geography or even an entire population in the abstract. I mean, why "love" America? I'm not even sure that "allegiance" is all that hot a thing to pledge. What if America's boundary lines ended at the Mississippi, and west of that was New America? I'm supposed to love one and not the other? And I'm supposed to be loyal to a country that has policies I hate? What's the "country" then? The land? The property people within those boundary lines own? A gazillion people I've never even met?

Is the country its laws, which stink much of the time, or its Constitution, which is a fine document that seems to be paid little attention in real life?

And if I'm supposed to love America because it's so great, and I don't think it's so great, I guess that makes me a traitor?

I don't know...it all seems so...well, silly.

I can understand (kind of) why people might love their culture and what it has produced, but culture is boundary-less. And every culture that I can think of has produced some horrible things...

So we're talking unconditional love? We're supposed to love our country like a child or parent or spouse? Or are we supposed to be more like co-dependent lovers: "I can fix this country with my love!" By being "patriotic" are we being "enablers" instead?

A "country" just seems so arbitrary. Take Iraq, for instance, which was created as a country by Britain back in the 1920s, I believe. Someone just said, okay here's your map -- now you're "Iraq."

It's weird. I guess I'm weird. The pledge of allegiance always bothered me as a kid. I'd think, What's the big deal about being an undivided nation? And "under God"? What's God, really? Liberty and Justice sound like good ideas, though...

[dolo amber]

10. Yes.

That's what I was getting at. :hi:

[Solon]

11. I don't understand Nationalism...

or its little brother Patriotism. It seems to me that to love country seems idiotic at times, does this mean you love a rock in your country more than a rock in another? I don't get that at all, I reserve love for those LIVING beings that can actually reciprocate. I personally don't care if my fellow human beings live here or live in Madagascar, it is the Humans I care about, not nations. If we can get rid of Patriotism, that force of so much grief in the world, then I would be a happy man.