The Seductive Nature of Nationalism

Today, I attended a Dead Soldier's Debate, in which four people represented soldiers who served on different sides of World War I. Although I've always struggled to wrap my mind around WWI, around the horrors and the pointless sacrifice of an entire generation, this particular event struck me from a new direction: the dangers of Nationalism. 

One of the soldiers, a decorated African-American, talked about his passion for freedom. Predictably, talking about freedom soon led to comments about the glory of the American cause in WWI--spreading democracy and freedom to other countries in the world. Listening to him ignited this sense of patriotic pride in me; I felt proud of my country's values, and for a brief brief moment I felt a burning in my soul for the cause of spreading freedom and democracy. 

The burning soon subsided when I became aware of the emotions I was feeling. The feelings of national pride were so seductive. With just a few words of rhetoric, they slipped past my carefully constructed filters of pacifism and reconciliation and ignited a desire to spread the American way of life. 

Is this not the same emotion that the French felt, having been outsmarted by Bismarck in the 1870's and consequently filled with a righteous passion to regain their lost territories of Alsace and Lorraine from Germany? Is this not similar to the passion for independence felt by the Serbs who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand to fight back against the occupation of their country by an empire?  Is this not just a smaller version of the same feeling of national pride felt by virtually every volunteer soldier in every country in the early days of the war? 

Soon after the American soldier's representative finished speaking, another American spoke about the horrors he had experienced in the war. He shared a story about a friend of his who was killed during the last day of the war simply because the American generals ordered attacks even when they knew an armistice was already assured.

This is the danger of Nationalism. When you want your own country to come out ahead at all costs, you forget that this can only happen at the expense of other countries and other people. And what ended up happening in World War I? Millions of equally passionate and patriotic men entered a conflict which few of them left alive, let alone filled with purpose and pride. 

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