Nationalism as a phenomenon
Nationalism is the political doctrine which means that humanity can be divided into different, separate units, that is nation. Each nation should have its own political unit that is the state. This nation also has its own culture, traditions, language, and religion. And each separate nation allows only that person to rule, who belongs to it national group.
Nationalism is something specific and ideologically weighty then the mere sense of national identity. At the base of nationalism is the idea of nation as the supreme authority, which substitutes all other possible sources and guarantors of the highest value.
Nationalism is one of the most “controversial political and ideological phenomena of our time” (Bulliet 347).
And such scholars as B, Anderson, E. Renan, M. Eksteins, and M. Weber gave priority to issues of nationalism as a historical phenomenon in their works. And they have some points of view on this occasion.
As Renan explains, “Nationalism seems to be a clear term but lends itself to dangerous misunderstandings. Nationalism does not come about only because of race, ethnic identity, language, religion, or mountains and rivers, even though these elements may have a role in creating a sense of community” (Bhabha 41). Or as Renan tells that “a nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things constitute this soul or spiritual principle…One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is a present-day consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value of the heritage that one has received in an undivided form” (Bhabha 19).
And another scholar Anderson in his book “Imagined Communities” proposed that “nationalism filled the void left by the decline of religious and dynastic territorial control” (Anderson 19). He writes, “Through the general principle of verticality, dynastic marriages brought together diverse populations under new apices” (Anderson 20).
As we know that nationalism took a variety of different guises from its first steps in eighteenth century, but it saved the main four features up to now.
First off all, there is a belief that every person belongs to a certain group of people whose lifestyle differs from the others, who are not included in it. The properties and characteristics of each group member are determined by properties and characteristics of this group as a whole and can not be fully understood by anyone who is outside the group.
Secondly, I must admit, that nationalism is the notion that the society is like a biological organism, because of the way of life. And the needs of this body are the main goals of society. When others values appear, nevertheless, the primacy have to belong to the main nation’s values, otherwise it threatens to decline and death.
The nationalist approach involves that there are some rules which must be followed, not because they lead to welfare, happiness, justice or freedom, but because they are the value of my nation.
And for the prophets of nationalism, the nation’s high demands to the individual based on the fact that its existence, its goals, its own history only gives life, the meaning of existence and actions of that individual. There are no values above the values of the nation, just as there are no universal values shared by all people, regardless of their membership of a particular nation.
Nowadays, several kinds of nationalism exist: civic nationalism, state nationalism, organic nationalism, cultural nationalism and ethnic nationalism.
Of course, the National Home can be a very effective way of bringing people together, when it comes to the realization of the nation as something unique and special. But it also may result “the humiliation and violence, if it becomes the basis for assertion that some people are better than others” (Mann 287). A great example from this selection is fascism.
In the twentieth century “nationalism is really the disease of mankind” (Eksteins 128) and it has been manifested in a variety of ethnic conflicts, ethnic strife: between Jews and Arabs, between Serbs and Croats, between the English and the Irish. There are a lot of angry and dissatisfied people in our difficult time. And national conflicts erupt here and there.
It is known that in a lot of countries there are more then thirty nations and ethnicities. That is why intolerance of one nation to another is simply unacceptable.
Nowadays, in most countries nationalism is perceived as a negative phenomenon that prevents the establishment of civil society, rule of the law, becoming the order. All these reasons are the goals of the development of many nations. And, sometimes, nationalism creates serious problems for their solutions.
The way I see it, nationalism is not love for the nation, it is more the hatred of the stranger. After all, the friendship between the peoples contributes to the development and improvement of the nation, and I can not say such words about the nationalism. And not in vain, in many countries a number of barriers of nationalism set out in the legislation.
Works Cited
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. Verso; Revised Edition, 1991. Print.
Bhabha, Homi. Nation and Narration. Routledge; 1 edition, 1990. Print.
Bulliet, Richard. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. Wadsworth Publishing; 5th edition, 2010. Print.
Eksteins, Modris. Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age. Mariner Books; 1th edition, 2000. Print.
Mann, Charles. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Vintage; 1st edition, 2006. Print.