Nationalism

Post date: Mar 04, 2021 7:18:13 AM

Devout nationalism... Fanatic nationalists believe that their country is right, whatever the facts are about any controversy in which it is involved; that other nations are inferior to theirs, no matter what the evidence shows; that their country does not merely consist of its land and its people, and their known and measurable characteristics, but of some ineffable, mystical, indefinable essence over and above these characteristics; that merely because they are citizens of their nation there must be something super special, heroic, and practically godlike about them; that the piece of fabric with insignia on it that represents the flag of their country is sacred and that any insult to it must be expunged with the insulter’s blood...

Now fanatic nationalists may believe that they believe in no god whatever; they may even be militant atheists... But the fact remains that their nationalistic beliefs imply that their country is not merely good it is great and glorious (which really means, it is close to being omnipotent)... They imply that their nation and its citizens are heroic (which really means godly)... They imply that their land (and they as citizens of it) have an unprovable and yet indubitably special essence (which means they believe in mystical transcendence)... And they imply that the symbols of their nation are sacred, meaning regarded with the same respect and reverence accorded holy---i.e. coming from god...

Fanatic nationalists, then, to use Eric Hoffer’s valuable term, are true believers... And so is virtually any other fanatical devotees of almost any ism you can think of... They may not believe in the conventional gods, with a so-called capital G; but they believe in higher powers, in inexorable orders of the universe, in absolutes, certainties, and inevitabilities for which there is no observable evidence, but the existence and truth of which they are utterly sure... They profoundly feel that these powers, orders, and absolutes exist... Just about nothing can shake their conviction that their feelings prove their existence... For that is the essence of their fanatic religiosity: deep abiding faith unfounded on fact and often rigidly held in spite of the knowledge of contradictory facts... Most capitalists are also included here as religious in nature in that they are true believers in the "invisible hand" of the market, a clearly supernatural concept, to solve all the worlds problems if the world will just set all markets free...