Nationalism

Around our country, one of the most common sights is the American flag. It is the symbol of our country, used to express support, allegiance, and many other things. But is that support well informed? well thought out and reasoned? or is it blindly displayed and under pretenses force fed by a higher power. A hot topic in the civics world is the separation of church and state. But has it become that the state is now the church?

Nationalism has popped up over history in many different eras. One of the most prominent being Hitler's Nazi Germany. However, the most recent showing of this, plague, can be found here in our own country. The great, powerful, well-doing United States. Or is that so? Through discussions with many foreigners, reading news from foreign points of view, and taking a second look at our society, it seems that our beloved US is not so great after all. With the Iraq war, McDonalds, and other things, which are topics for another post which i won't get into now, have created labels and stereotypes commonly applied to our country. But what has caused the American people to still see good in their government? What causes them to still support the actions of this government? and the accepting of the sometimes outrageous reasons for these actions?

The most prominent and recent cause for this plague can be seen in an event which is used to justify many things. It is a rally point for sweeping up these blind people. 9/11 was a horrible and tragic event, I must agree, and so will most of the sane people in this world. Sure it may rouse anger, and lust for revenge in some people, but this surge in emotion was manipulated. It caused people not to reason, not to analyze. Rash actions and decisions were made.

Another thing that has caused this to happen is the failure to accept being wrong. Now that the surge of emotions has fallen slightly, the American people are not willing to accept that they are the bad guys. They will cling to their stories and justifications, no matter how ridiculous. But the saddest part is, in their eyes, they are being patriots.

Patriotism and Nationalism a good thing? Does the glorification and idealization of one's country mean one is being a model citizen? This reminds me of a poll i recently participated in on Facebook. It asked a simple questions with two simple words. Are you a citizen of your nation or a citizen of the world?

Nationalism has diseased many societies in history, our being the most recent to fall victim. This blindness has caused many disturbances in the flow of time. The most famous nationalistic disturbance is probably World War II and the Nazi vie for power. I believe our country has succumbed to this blindness, but, like the current "recession," no one accepts the fact until it is over