Nationalism, An ideology of Pride and Identity.

Nationalism, in simple terms, is a sense of pride and identity to one's own nation, whether it'd be where you are born and have lived or where your family heritage comes from. This pride and identity have always played a significant part in human history; our ideologies, our social life, our economy are always in the interest of making ourselves- and our nation- proud. However as we have seen, time and time again in history this pride has found its way into our political and social ideologies, developing that sense of pride into hateful discrimination- usually against a minority group.

obtained from http://madefrom.com/history/world-war-one/anti-german-propaganda-posters

The 20th century was marked by nationalism, 2 major global conflicts leaving millions dead and countless other 'smaller' scale wars left the world in a state of chaos and shambles. Sadly, it looks like we are bound to repeat the mistakes made in the previous century as we seem to be foolishly ignoring our last 100 years of wars for the 'nation'. After World War 2 many alliances were formed- UN, EU, IMF, WTO, NAFTA and the recently signed Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership- as a means to create a more unified world to avoid more large scale destruction. While these organisations have been largely successful, the change brought about by globalisation has created a re-emergence of nationalism, putting at risk almost everything we have worked to achieve in the last century.

Perhaps the most well known ( and one of the darkest) nationalistic movements was that of the Nazi party in Germany during the years following the first World War and and only ending with Hitler's death. Hitler preached about white supremacy, alienating minority groups- untermenschen(sub-human)- and blaming them for the German defeat in the first war, as well as the economic and political problems Germany faced at the time. He used this 'superiority' to justify the killing of millions of Jews, communists and anything he deemed not worthy, all in an effort to 'better' Germany. World War one was another conflict caused by nationalism, though in this occasion it was more prevalent in both sides,  with propaganda at the epicentre, both sides made themselves look like heroes fighting off evil for the good of the nation and the world.

propaganda from both sides of the war

Sadly, it seems that we have not learned from the mistakes of the previous centuries as we can see new nationalistic waves brought forth due to globalisation. The hatred that comes along with this nationalistic pride; the notion that somehow your nation was better off without globalisation, without immigrants is exactly what some power hungry, opportunistic politicians want. Brexit is one of such cases, the parties that campaigned for it, campaigned on a promise that it would be better for their motherland, that it would bring back jobs and that the wave of refugees that France is currently taking in  wouldn't seep into Britain if Brexit went through. However, over a year later it has become clear that the parties that were for brexit have no concrete plan as to what to do, or even how to go about leaving the EU, they appealed to the nationalistic side as a means to further their agenda with no actual benefit to the country or to the EU.

More violent forms of nationalism are erupting all over the world, ISIS/the Daesh group have declared themselves as a state(albeit not recognised by the UN as such) and have sought to destroy Shiites and bring about a worldwide caliphate. They have used a religious driven nationalistic cause to rally up the suffering people with the promise of serving a 'greater cause'. This has led to terror attacks all over the world, killing innocent children and adults- including muslims, the people that preach to care so much about.

Lastly, because I just couldn't go one piece of writing without talking about the man himself, President Donald J. Trump and the United States. After campaigning on hate for immigrants, women and just total disregard for anyone that isn't rich, he has now - as president- an opportunity to use that nationalistic hate for non-white Americans to further his agenda, and to further fuel inequality and hate throughout the country and the world (looking at you Pauline Hanson). The white nationalist rally that occurred recently ( august 2017) showed the effects of the hatred he has been campaigning so openly about, with a domestic terrorist attack leaving 1 dead and 19 injured. Instead of condemning Neo Nazis and white supremacists ( something that you would think is a no brainer ) President trump chose instead to blame both sides- the other side being peaceful protesters refusing to accept white supremacist behaviour. In addition, his recent decision to end DACA(Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)- a policy that would allow illegal refugees to stay in the US without being deported and so that they could be integrated into the community- will now deport over 800, 000 children back to war torn nations, all in the effort to make America white again. 

obtained from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/charlottesville-clashes-reminiscent-30s-nazi-rallies-msg-article-1.3406557

Nationalism is an unequivocal hindrance to today's globalised world, we cannot allow our pride to prevent us from seeing the mistakes made by our ancestors, as human beings we  must aim to be better.

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."
Albert Einstein