I am minded to write about Nationalism. What actually is it?
The free online dictionary - the most widely accessed online dictionary on google - states;
1. Devotion to the interests or culture of one's nation.
2. The belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.
3. Aspirations for national independence in a country under foreign domination.
2. The belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.
3. Aspirations for national independence in a country under foreign domination.
which begs the immediate question 'what is a nation?'
Again, the same resource says;
a. A relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country.
b. The territory occupied by such a group of people: All across the nation, people are voting their representatives out.
2. The government of a sovereign state.
3. A people who share common customs, origins, history, and frequently language; a nationality: "Historically the Ukrainians are an ancient nation which has persisted and survived through terrible calamity" (Robert Conquest).
4.
a. A federation or tribe, especially one composed of Native Americans.
b. The territory occupied by such a federation or tribe.
b. The territory occupied by such a group of people: All across the nation, people are voting their representatives out.
2. The government of a sovereign state.
3. A people who share common customs, origins, history, and frequently language; a nationality: "Historically the Ukrainians are an ancient nation which has persisted and survived through terrible calamity" (Robert Conquest).
4.
a. A federation or tribe, especially one composed of Native Americans.
b. The territory occupied by such a federation or tribe.
Nationalism is a construct. A relatively recent phenomenon which has become widely accepted as a method of defining boundaries and creating a collective sense of belonging and purpose to large - sometimes vast - groups of human beings.
I am not a Nationalist. I do not believe in Nationalism, but I am affected by it. At a simple level I shoiw support to my national football team. I have followed them to the 1990 World Cup in Italy, and seen some curiously outlandish examples of it in the behaviour of people who believe themselves both nationalistic and patriotic. (One who loves, supports, and defends one's country.)
The ever helpful (if not always entirely accurate) wikipedia on the topic of nationalism writes;
'Nationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation.[1] It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation.
Collectivism, so what makes a collective? Is it similarities, or differences? Does it have a specific physical root, or is it composed from and out of shared beliefs. And are such shared beliefs still valid for the present time in which we live?
The British National Party believe specifically in difference and their only similarity is in ethnic creed, both in physical and psychologically constructed beliefs. But they lack one very important factor. A common ancestry, other than significantly the very fact they we are all descended from the same African tribe, the Kalahari Bushmen.
Nations cannot be determined by race, colour, creed, or spiritual beliefs. Only by the consent of those people who live there, and their collective suffrage.
The British Nationalist Party are a party that would divide the people of the nation of the United Kingdom on the most specious of grounds. Hatred. Don't vote for them please.
The Last Bleeding Heart-Liberal Pinko-Communist
They pretend that they're after the Nationalist vote
Waving Union flags for the next great white hope.
With a brick through the window bearing your racist note
If you vote for the new BNP!
They'll explain how we're facing an 'immigrant flood'
And about Enoch Powell and his 'rivers of blood'
But you'll be lighting a torch for a white pointed hood
If you vote for the new BNP!
They'll say how they're proud of their white ancestry
How the holocaust was lies a 'kike conspiracy'
How the blacks want your jobs and the Jews your money
If you vote for the new BNP!
They'll 'send 'em all back' to where 'they all belong'
Though they don't even know where their own genes come from
Beware the far right before you go far wrong
If you vote for the new BNP!
But don't touch their posters or you'll need first-aid
When their hidden agenda will soon be betrayed
And slice off your fingertips with an old razor blade
If you vote for the new BNP!
Now I've penned this song I'll be on their hit-list
For a smack in the mouth from a hate-tattooed fist
The last bleeding-heart-liberal pinko-communist
If you vote for the new BNP!
Please don't vote for the new BNP!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fx-x8GoGtI&feature=channel
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