nationalism final essay english 2010 mark woodbury

8/3/2019 Nationalism Final Essay English 2010 Mark Woodbury

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Mark Woodbury

Gary Howard

English 2010

4-21-2011

Nationalism: The flag shaped scourge

Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love,

everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out

their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies,

and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and

destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and

father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician,

every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species

lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. (Carl Sagan: Cosmos)

The first thing that comes to my mind when reading this is how insignificant it makes us

seem. Our differences as humans are unimportant; the pale blue dot does not have borders as

our leaders would have us believe. Unfortunately, there are those who unknowingly disagree

with this on a daily basis. Enter the nationalist and patriot or N&P as I will refer to it, for short.


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Proponents of N&P argue that national pride increases morale, brings our country

together, gives people something to believe in, makes people feel safe, helps our citizens stand

up for our cultural values, encourages community outreach, and makes our nation united and

strong. Many N&Ps study their countries history, attend political rallies and parades, listen to

music that promote their favored country and celebrate events that happened centuries ago by

wearing hats and t-shirts with tacky designs and logos while burning combustible powders for

brief aesthetic appeal. While most of what I just mentioned is nothing more than harmless, silly

and sometimes even beneficial; it can quickly spiral into a slippery slope of simple-mindedness,

arrogance, naivety, and lack of critical thinking.

As Levar Burton frequently said You dont have to take my word for it. Here are two

quotes from N&P which further my standpoint. Adlai Stevenson said America is much more

than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact - the first community in which men set

out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality

(Adlai Stevenson: America is much more than a) and John Gunther said Ours is the only

country deliberately founded on a good idea. (John Gunther: quotations book) Both of these

people have much in common; neither know what they are talking about and they are self

righteous. I wonder if Gunther and Stevenson knew there were many institutions of freedom

before America, such as Greece, Rome and the European countries that had a form of

parliament. Did they know that in Americas early days; you were only free if you were a white,

male landowner? I almost wonder if these two were even educated in a school system, maybe

they dropped out by the third grade when most classes start to teach this material.


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Unfortunately, this kind of blather is so widespread, I could make a book that contained

entirely these kinds of quotes or I could keep reciting this garbage ad nauseum. I use American

N&P quotes due to them being more widespread. Also, we all live in America and chronically

experience this propaganda making this a much more personal example.

Any fanatical fixation to an ideology is dangerous. This applies to both religion and N&P.

Loyalists around the globe such as the axis troops, the Chinese military and North Koreans kill

any opposition their country faces with no question or consideration. If this killing was only

limited to other loyalists I would be apathetic, however this is not the case. Collateral damage is

a buzzword that is frequently used in the media. It is really just a nice way of saying that these

loyalists murdered innocent civilians. Weasel words like this are used frequently to ensure the

publics approval, especially in the political and media outlets. In an ideal society that disliked

their government war would never happen. No one would kill and die for an organization they

never liked. War would only happen in such a society only to protect their own country from

other countries the citizens had an even greater dislike for.

The late great George Carlin in one of his famous stand up gigs was talking about how

politicians manipulate the easily persuaded populous Politicians have traditionally hidden

behind 3 things: the flag (or N&P), the bible, and children (George Carlin: They Own You),

Considering how long they have been doing it, it obviously works. This underlines a serious flaw

in the process of democracy. Many people vote for candidates for meaningless reasons. An

anti-patriot would see through this guise and hopefully focus on whether or not they would

make a good leader.


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No one likes a critic, not even another critic, however critics play an important role in

improving whatever they are critiquing. They may complain about a movie being too generic or

a product not being user friendly enough, but, as long as, they give constructive criticism, they

always end up improving future products with their critiques. This kind of feedback is rare from

a group of people known as fanboys, who seem to be incapable of criticizing whatever they are

a fanboy of. The same thing applies to the topic at hand. N&Ps are much less likely to

disapprove or question their leaders or laws of the land. They favor the status quo because they

believe disapproval of their government is unpatriotic. This leads to a slower rate of progression

in the political system. Imagine if we had the same laws as we did 100 years ago or if women

still didnt have the right to vote?

Finally, I would like to talk about the other countries in the world. Many Americans

believe our country is the greatest in the world, at everything. Dubai and many other countries

are wealthier than the US, South America, and Europe and have far superior soccer teams,

there are over a dozen countries more educated than the US, and it is a well known fact that

our medical system ranks behind even some third world countries. While America is superior in

many ways, America cannot live up to the fantastical expectations some of its citizens may

have. Which country is the best in the world is an opinion, not a fact as many Americans

believe, meaning there is no right or wrong answer.

War, poor leaders and government, oppression, and social stagnation all stem from

N&P. We live in an international community where the worlds citizens must stop this tribal

mindset and realize there are more important things than loyalty to any country, such as our


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own lives and my fellow man. Perhaps if N&Ps ate a slice of humble pie and tried to improve

their own country instead of boasting and belittling the rest of the world we would all live in a

far better place.


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Works Cited

Carlin, George. They Own You u4ya.ca. Weblog. 5 18 2009. Web. 4 21 11

Cosmos. Dir. Adrian Malone. Perf. Sagan, Carl. PBS, 9 28 1980, Television

Gunther, John. quotationsbook.com. quotation collection, Web. 4 21 2011

Stevenson, Adlai. America is much more than a.quotationcollection.com. quotation

collection, 7 3 2007. Web. 4 21 2011


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Philosopher Socrates in his famous quote "I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the

world.

It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men

have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars.

Arthur C. Clarke, ["The Exploration of Space" (1951), p. 187]

So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to

one's neighbours. The citizen of the universe would the man who wishes his country never to

be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.

Voltaire, ["Fatherland" in "Miracles and Idolatry" (Selections from the Dictionnaire

Philosophique (1764),(pg. 56), Penguin Books, 2005.]


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I feel that patriotism should be mainly about love for ones culture and history, and not merely

unconditional support for the deeds of ones nation. http://www.dominica-weekly.com/is-

patriotism-good-or-bad/

Individuality is a far more important thing than nationality,and in any given man deserves a

thousand-fold more consideration. And since you cannot speak of national character without

referring to large numbers of people, it is impossible to be both loud in your praises and honest.

National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity

and baseness of mankind take in every country. If we become disgusted with one, we praise

another, until we get disgusted with this one too. Every nation mocks at other nations, and they

are all right.

Arthur Schopenhauer, ["The Wisdom of Life-IV;Position:Section 2- Pride". (1851).Trans

Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone

you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and

economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and

destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and

father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician,


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every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species

lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Patriotism is as much of a delusion as religion.

Why should I be proud of my country just because I randomly happened to be born here

)

nationalism final essay english 2010 mark woodbury

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