Nationalism
The term "nationalism" is difficult to define, and any universal definition would be incomplete and oversimplified. Certainly history, culture, language, race and religion are important in the building of nation-states but they are not necessarily essential or universally applicable; the unifying factors for a Swiss in Switzerland, and for a German in Germany, are quite different. Studying the events of recent history and the evolution of modern social organization is not possible without a study of nationalism. This modern phenomenon has been evolving from its conception, in the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. It has transformed and recently become, not so much an ideology, but an "identify," as something you are rather than something you merely prescribe to or believe in. Modern nationalism is a movement based on exclusion and opposition, as compared to the ideology that once sought to include people and populations. Understanding this contemporaneous phenomenon, especially in one's own context, is synonymous with understanding the events of modern history and predicting the repercussions it will have in the future. Taking into account merely the goals of the nationalist, nationalism can be loosely defined as th
e drive of individuals to move toward an autonomous political structure, where the soul of the state is conducive to the national identity of its collective members. It is the conscious decision and will of a nationalist to actively seek to create, and to only accept a "nation-state." That is to say, where the identity of the state is complementary and favorable to the national character of its members, and where the state will actively defend the existence and importance of this group. A nationalist is far more concerned about collective action rather than individual preferences, more interested in the well-being and preservation of the state than the protection of individual freedoms and forms of expression. He places the needs of the nation, (and these are certainly never static), over the particularities of its many members, and he often does this at the expense of other nationalities. This is why the term "nationalism" must be placed in a league of very potentially dangerous ideologies. The effect of nationalism has always been two-sided. On one side, there is the culmination of social and cultural attributes into a political structure, fueled by the romantic idea that 'one's destiny sits at the foot of self-preservation'. On the other, far more disturbing side, is the expansionist nature of nationalism, that seeks to put boundaries around people based on a specific set of criteria. Certainly every school of thought has its proponents along with its "ugly" face; modern nationalism however, seeks the destruction of one nation's right to exist
Some common words found in the essay are:
Napoleonic Wars, France Mexico, European Union, Quebecois Canada, , Germany Studying, Gerard Delany, national identity, term nationalism, United Nations, nationalism seeks, political structure, language race, building nation-states, modern nationalism, global players,
Approximate Word count = 1058
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
