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Nationalism

Anytime someone says something I disagree with, I tend to go looking into it in a bit more detail. I was playing tennis with a fella recently when he exclaimed “you can’t trust the Chinese”. I asked for a bit of clarification… “Chinese people or the Chinese government?” and he responded with “both” and I responded with “that’s dumb”. My relative youth and social standing most likely resulted in my comment as being brushed off as naivety. However, I am entirely confident in my assessment given that I know several decent Chinese folks who are no more or less proud of their country than I am of mine… which is to say it’s relative. Although he may have had some bad experiences with business, I brushed off the generalization as a type of blind nationalism most likely in tune with some of other rhetoric that’s been going around. In response, I thought I’d share a couple quotes on nationalism and text him a link to this article. I’m moderate in thinking that although most nationalism is junk, nations should preserve their unique cultures and history provided they don’t stifle progress. I kind of touched on this in my essay Good News Everyone1. The first quote is taken from an interview with Albert Einstein in the Saturday Evening Post of October 1929 by George Sylvester Viereck2: “Do you look upon yourself as a German or as a Jew?” Einstein:

“It is quite possible, to be both. I look upon myself as a man. Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”

Albert Einstein, “My Credo” (1932)3,4.

“I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.”

George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism“5:

“A nationalist is one who thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige. He may be a positive or a negative nationalist — that is, he may use his mental energy either in boosting or in denigrating — but at any rate his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations. He sees history, especially contemporary history, as the endless rise and decline of great power units, and every event that happens seems to him a demonstration that his own side is on the upgrade and some hated rival is on the downgrade.”

Carl Sagan, Cosmos6:

“National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.”

Arthur Schopenhauer,  Essays and Aphorisms7

“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”

Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana8

“Somebody must trespass on the taboos of modern nationalism, in the interests of human reason. Business can’t. Diplomacy won’t. It has to be people like us.”

Buckminster Fuller, “The View from the Year 2000“9

If you think in terms of people divided up into countries, you won’t follow me. The idea of countries is going by the boards. Young people are getting wonderfully uprooted and they’re too strong to get sucked into this ‘country’ crap.

George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)10

“Nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.”

  1. David Windham Good News Everyone – https://davidawindham.com/good-news-everyone/
  2. Saturday Evening Post, What Life Means to Eistein – http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/what_life_means_to_einstein.pdf
  3. Albert Einstein – My Credo – https://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/credo.html
  4. Stack Exchange Skeptics – https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/19539/einstein-nationalism-is-an-infantile-disease-it-is-the-measles-of-mankind
  5. George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_Nationalism
  6. Carl Sagan, Cosmos – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_(Sagan_book)
  7. Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer
  8. Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Oxiana
  9. Buckminster Fuller, “The View from the Year 2000” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller
  10. George Washington’s Farewell Address – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_Farewell_Address