CWT #196: LIST - 10 reasons I'm not big into nationalism

Critical Wade Theory

The basics (aside from my spontaneously added commentary):

1. Nationalism: often sees difference not as a resource for enrichment but as a threat to the national community. In fact, you can see this even among nationalists and nationalist thinkers themselves. You are either on the same page or you're probably a dangerous person or a kook or lunatic. At the very least, they'll consider you stupid.

Philosopher Ernest Gellner (1983, p. 124) wrote that nationalist thinkers “did not make much of a difference. If one of them had fallen, others would have stepped into his place…. [T]he quality of nationalist thought would hardly have been affected by such substitutions.”

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-polisci-022018-024059

2. Nationalism: often aspires to enforce its ideals by force, under the guise of "National unity." This, of course, means that a lot of love and respect for a nation will end up being forced rather than entirely genuine. It is a love out of fear.

3. Nationalism: often tolerates no criticism of itself or its leaders.

Stephen M. Walt, a columnist at Foreign Policy and professor of international relations at Harvard University, calls nationalism “the most powerful force in the world" and even wrote an article for Foreign Policy called "You Can’t Defeat Nationalism, So Stop Trying." That title almost entirely matches point number 3, and it's also probably not as true as he claims, as nationalism is actually something that can rise or decline.

4. Nationalism: often refuses to acknowledge or recognize the rights of any other nation or ethnic group, and often only does so to attain or enhance perceived self-interest.

5. Nationalism: of is suspicious of science and its attempts to study man.

Society is not understood all that scientifically as a result, meaning judgments tend to be rooted more in beliefs and emotions than in science and reason.

6. Nationalism: often holds itself out to be a force for universal good.

“The Case for Nationalism,” is often simply that human beings would be obliterated by evil should the mighty, majestic nation decline.

7. Nationalism: often takes the side of one nation against the rest.

8. Nationalism: often (though not exclusively) holds the so-called white man’s burden of civilization as its purpose.

9. Nationalism: often refuses to admit to mistakes and failure.

Doing so would jeopardize a nation's conservative ability to stay “frozen in time” by glorifying the past. We will always "be made great again" by omitting our most egregious flaws and atrocities, even more so if those atrocities are still happening today.

10. Nationalism: often regards those who don’t share its feelings as morally inferior.

Critics will always challenge the worth of nations, so nations will always challenge the worth of critics. Often, in addressing the critics, a nationalist will make no serious effort to prove their case. Rather than saying which values or words are being misinterpreted by the critic of nationalism, they will simply emphasize how the critic is "useless" or terrible for their crime of independent thought and challenging narratives of greatness, or what have you.

The word ‘nationalism’ was first known to be used in 1798, and, to me, it seems safe to say that nationalist attitudes and behaviors have not significantly changed in all those years since.

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