Fighting is a natural part of human civilization. There are no people—no nation—that have not fought at some point in their history.
A very common historical reason for this is because of nationalism. Nationalism is the idea that the people of a nation matter most. A perfect example of this definition in effect is in Nazi Germany. Nazi is an acronym, translated from German, which means national socialism. Adolf Hitler often promoted the idea of a single Aryan race and that the German people must unite because they are German. Recently, however, I've observed that there appear to be a lot of cases and reports of governments having nationalism in modern times. Let's look at some examples and see what nationalist states have created.
I want to first begin with a clarification. There are three words that many get confused with: country, nation, and state. A country is a land that a state and nation are tied to; a state is a system that a nation and a country run, and a nation is a people that run a state and live in a country.
Many might mistake nationalism with patriotism. But the two are quite different. Let me explain. In Kosovo, the Kosovo War began because of ethnic cleansing against the Albanians that lived in Kosovo. The Serbian government had displaced, killed, and abused the Kosovar Albanians. The Serbian government did these actions mainly because Serbia has a long history of strong nationalism and pride in its people. Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having pride in your heritage or people. That's called patriotism. For example, the United States; it's filled with patriots who care and love their country a lot, regardless of who the "people" are. They should not care about race, gender, or ethnicity; those are all things that relate to one's idea of nationalism. Patriotism is when you're proud of your people and the history of your people—but not to the point where you think they're the only important people. Nationalism is not the same. As I have mentioned earlier, nationalism is when the people of a nation matter most. Some people may look at that definition and think that it's not as bad as it sounds, but it is. Who are the people exactly? Am I part of the people? Who's deciding who the people are? There are many ways one can define "people." Maybe the “people” are the ethnic majority that makes up a nation. Maybe the “people” are people who share ethnicity and religion, making those people just as important. In Serbia's case, it was all ethnic Serbians. They kicked out the Albanians because of this.
But nationalism creates a passion in people. Under nationalism, people fight with a passion unmatched. In Azerbaijan, the small Armenian enclave has repeatedly become an issue in recent years because of nationalism. Azerbaijan actively discriminated against the small Armenian population. They were discriminated against by not being able to participate in Azerbaijani affairs. Now, I'm bringing this up because their past was bottled up due to Soviet rule. The Soviet Union was against ethnic nationalism. Because of that, they just ignored what was happening in Azerbaijan. So all this ethnic tension became bottled up, and eventually, it all burst in the wars fought between the two nations.
Nationalism is hard to ignore. Some people want to fight for nationalism in the name of their people for reasons like ethnicity or religion. Those people are passionate. Their passion for nationalism is strong. Think of how badly the Armenians wanted to let their people be safe, fighting for their freedom against their oppressors. Think about how badly Azerbaijan wanted to make those people Azerbaijani. And yet, their nationalism was blocked by the Soviet Union's communism. Releasing that tension would be so relieving if it weren't for Azerbaijan's resistance against the Armenians. This only makes Armenian and Azerbaijani nationalism stronger.
In Syria, the Kurdish people were ignored in the past and were now being killed by the Syrian government. The Kurdish people were fighting for their freedom but also to unite as Kurdistan with the other surrounding Kurdish people. However, all those Kurdish forces in Syria were all different groups of people. They all had different ideas and beliefs but united under one name: the Kurds. They fought in the name of the Kurds. Nationalism is a uniting factor in people coming together and fighting as one. Historically, that's usually been the case. Think of the Prussian Empire, where Otto Von Bismarck had united the German city-states under one name to fight under Germany. Or the Korean people after WWII when the first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, riled up the Korean people against their Japanese colonizers. He used nationalism to unite the Korean people to find independence.
Now, why does this all matter? Why should you care? Well, let's look at how the United States is today. It is incredibly diverse. Can nationalism rise in America? It is quite possible. Think about all the different people in the U.S. and consider how strong some people might feel about their race, their ethnicity, and their "people." All this diversity, however, creates a culture that mixes culture with culture, creating one national identity—the American identity. America's culture has always been a massive hotpot of different cultures and peoples. It's hard only to pick one and say they are the true Americans.
At the same time, because of this diversity, at least one people will always fight against a nationalist uprising in this country. Anyone should find this idea of diversity in the Declaration of Independence's famous line, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Nationalism ignores all three of these. Life means every individual has the right to be alive; everyone has their own life. Liberty means every individual has their freedom, albeit with some responsibilities to protect other people's liberty. Pursuit of happiness means that every individual has different happiness, but that should be protected as long as it doesn't violate the previous two values. Nationalism means that the life of a people that isn't a specified nation will be ignored. That the other people will forget their liberty in return for the liberty of that one specific nation. Those other people's happiness will be irrelevant if it isn't that one specific nation's happiness. Again, nationalism ignores all three American values in the Declaration of Independence. Because of those three American values engraved in American culture, there is still a chance that some people in this country will fight in the name of nationalism. It might not be labeled as nationalism, but it will look like it. The best way to avoid this is to teach kids how to recognize nationalism early on. This will make a generation aware of the dangers that nationalism can face, making it much more difficult for anything like nationalism to appear readily. Instead, we can unite all peoples regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or any other group in America as Americans who fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Comments