Defining nationalism you could say that it is the belief that one ethnic group has right of the state rather than any other, or citizenship over another. This belief can be dangerous at times noting how over the top people take this belief to be. Goebbels took this so far as to put up innocent lives who were unfit to fight in the last effort to win the war. The more the mass has been manipulated the more they will complete the commandments of nationalism. Totalitarionism is a key player sometimes in Nationalism, with examples of Nazi Germany where Hitler controlled the masses deciding to take nationalism to the extreme. Germany today could be so into the idea of nationalism because there countries borders have been forever changing.
Some countries for example the US believe in nationalism making the flag sacred, however they forget to realise that they in fact are made up of immigrants themselves. Great Britain have a good balance with nationalism because it is made up of four countries. These four countries have many different nationalities in them which means that nationalism is hard to believe in when there are so much ethnic groups that have rights in these countries. Muslims have no such thing as nationalism as they are divided from city to city with theological ideals. Whereas China is based on political allegiances being a very communist country. As you can see each state has its own ideas of nationalism and how there people have alliances with there state.
In the middle ages it was a different story it didn't fall with the modern belief of being completely loyal to your state. The politics of this time were different states were mostly controlled by religions, in Britain it was the Church. The church would often have to negotiate with land owners in politics which meant little wars were caused. Then we found 'civil society' in which we were protected from wars with education and health care given to us when we paid taxes which meant we were free to make our own choices with no influence from the state. Of course before this we were ruled by the King so the peoples loyalties lay with him, however when this collapses it makes way for a new era of loyalty to what the state is now. Nationalism at its worst can be unquestionably bad fighting for land and state because ethnic groups have the right.
Philosophers through time have wrote about nationalism of the state and most have come up with very different ideas about what nationalism is and what the state is.
Hobbes for instance believes that if people were left to their own devises they would become barbarians so they need the state to keep them in check. The idea of the 'artificial man', he believes that the state should be a 'war machine' where they fight people who rebel against the state and states who try to take over it. He believes that whatever the state decides should be law for the greater good no matter what this may be.
Rousseau however wrote the social contract in this he establishes that people already know what is right and what is wrong. They have the moral codes set in them from birth its whether they choose to listen to it. He believed the state should be where reigional differences aren't there having the state as a single voice. His opinions weren't religiously based but his argyment for this type of state means who would count? and who should be the single voice?
Hegel however believed solely in religion playing a big factor in the state saying that 'the state is God on earth'. He believed that the state was there to do Gods work, although stating that the state or nation weren't natural. He believed in the state having absolute power over the poeple because they were doing the job God wants them to do.
Hume is a varied philosopher who said 'authority is based on nothing but opinion' which is very hard to decipher whether he thought anything at all about the state in general.
No comments:
Post a Comment