A Salute to Nationalism

Few things are more uniformly detested than nationalism. The term sparks images of Swastikas parading across Nuremberg, demagogues on three continents, and millions of dead in the name of common hatred and resentment. Tragic how perhaps the most basic and fundamental components of social organization is so quickly condemned by looking at its extreme manifestations. Any institution and shared trait can be exploited for personal gain; the world and this author are no strangers to that fact. Nevertheless, it is the height of idiocy and intellectual contradiction to pretend individuals exist in a detached vacuum. I argue nationalism, a connection and deep-seated love for a particular community (nation) into which one is born a member, is essential for maintaining a sense of purpose and pragmatism. Those who place other groups’ interests before their own, despite loud statements to the contrary, are showing great contempt for the people they are trying to help. While abuses do occur and are at times horrific, the lack of a core national identity puts communities on the road to extinction. There is no better way to hasten tragedy than to fake universalism and there is no better way to bring about stronger unity than to live based on a hierarchy of interest.

Nationalism has been an essential ingredient in the creation of our modern states-system that, despite its supposed shortcomings and aptitude for repeated conflict, offers order and stability. Those nations lucky enough to have a territory to call their own enjoy a currency of rights and privileges few other actors have, with cultural cohesion and discipline as byproducts. France is the product of the fruits and beliefs of Frenchmen, England of Englishmen, Russia of Russians, and so on. One people united in culture, tradition, religion, and history creates stable counterbalances with other groups. The sense of destiny and purpose that guides members of these communities allows for better citizens, as love of one’s soil and natives pushes individuals toward improvement. In the event of attack, the unity offered by the community is hard to challenge, as everyone knows who and what they are fighting for. One can pervert these ideals and exploit popular discontent for political gain, as Mussolini and Hitler so effectively demonstrated. One can head in the opposite direction and repudiate the very concept of nationalism, replacing it with the borderless homogeneity of Proletarian rule or fundamentalist religion. None of these directions have produced much good for humanity and I venture to say never will.

In order for an individual to have any legitimacy in fighting for the interests of another, he must have his own interests looked after first. I offer a case study in the United States, where so many ethnic, racial, and religious groups have intermingled to shape the American identity. The United States is not for a specific people but a construct founded on ideals. Within that construct, different groups compete to maximize the fulfillment of the American dream in accordance with their interests. There is one group, however, that more than any other has gone against the tradition of a hierarchy of interest and a group-centered political mentality: American Jews.

My views on this matter are deeply personal, as I feel silence will lead to terrible tragedy. A people that has given the world the Bible, incredible works of science and literature, philosophy, and commerce crucial for Europe’s development out of the Middle Ages seems paralyzed when speaking both of its uniqueness and the ever present dangers to its survival. The world has repaid the Jews well for their contributions, namely through pogroms, blood libels, inquisitions, and concentration camps. Whether he lived in Holland, Poland, or Germany, the Jew could never grow fully comfortable in any adopted land. The rebirth of Israel imposed a new reality on the Jews. Suddenly the people had returned to their land, had an army defending it, and over six million Jewish citizens living and working to commit two millennia of homelessness forever to memory. Looking at American Jewish thinking, it is baffling how little this reality seems to have registered. Why are abortion rights more important to the American Jew than the survival of the only Jewish state and its Jewish citizens? Why are American Jewish leaders pandering to sworn domestic enemies of Jewish interests while pushing tiny Israel to hand over more land in return for worthless promises, battered cities, and an ever increasing number of Jewish dead.

The desire to be accepted and loved has reached stratospheric heights with America’s Jews. This thinking lead to near total silence when the Jews of the St. Louis pleaded for entry visas to escape Hitler’s regime. Soviet Jews were also not a serious priority, until the exploits of “radical” Jewish organizations within the United States pushed the slew of mainstream groups to action.

Tragically, the argument that such an approach was taken across the board on a whole range of issues with which Jewish groups involved themselves falls flat. Jewish activists rode with the Freedom Riders, marched with CORE volunteers, and in the case of one tragic incident on a Mississippi highway, gave their lives to advance the cause of black Civil Rights. All of these movements are laudable and important, and I certainly do not mean to imply otherwise. Yet it appears quite ridiculous to assume that the will to help is sufficient to really understand the problems facing a community totally distinct from your own, especially when that help comes at the expense of your community’s interests. I certainly do not expect a member of any other group to look after my problems, and I don’t see why the reverse cannot be true. Jews marched against Apartheid and in support of the African National Congress, which maintained a viciously anti-Israel foreign policy and kept close friends with Uganda’s Idi Amin and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat. Few black activists take to the streets to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day, despite enormous Jewish contributions to promoting black causes in the past. The worst manifestation of this horrific mindset has been the emergence of a host of Jewish organizations and intellectuals marching in lockstep with the enemies of the Jewish state and the Jewish people. These self-hating traitors, and I stand by that term, see no qualms with financially and politically supporting those who seek the death of both the members and the dreams of the Jewish people. One can find these people among the ranks of the Hassidic Orthodox and the staunchly secular, in the halls of academia and on the campaign trail. In confronting this reality and the damage it is bringing upon the Jewish people, restraining oneself becomes difficult. Only a full repudiation of these elements and a return to a hierarchy of interest will stop the hemorrhaging

For a society to survive and prosper, it must embrace a hierarchy of interest and recognize its own uniqueness and destiny. Accepting these delineations in culture, political views, and aspirations garners respect and interaction founded on existing reality. Pan-Arabism was heavily weakened and overtaken by Islamic fundamentalism, many argue, due to the failure of successive Arab coalitions to restore Arab dominance to the Middle East after centuries of debilitating colonialism. Marx hoped for a transnational Proletarian revolution founded on the common economic interest of the global working class, but his theory underestimated the power of nationalism. The need for maintaining a common culture and tradition are nowhere better tested today than in Europe, where a civilization still licking its wounds and trying to determine a new path is coming face to face with an actively expanding minority seeking to adjust the prevailing socio-political order to its needs. Recognizing the existence of nationally divided groups seeking territorial security and international legitimacy is simple unavoidable. The answer for Europe is a political shift to the right, embracing the mythology and cultural tenets that allowed for dominance over the course of many centuries. Stability and order in the Balkans was forever ruptured by the foolish bombing of Serbia in 1999, preventing a Yugoslav resurgence and giving Islamist groups an open door to Central Europe. The nationalism of Ze’ev Jabotinsky has to be given new life in Israel, perhaps through the very positive ascension of Avigdor Lieberman into the post of Minister for Strategic Threats. If individuals continue to embrace perverse moralism and universalism, the end of those civilizations is merely a matter of time. To each group its own interests, principles, and dreams. It is for the better that divisions continue and becoming increasingly embraced, so that all will live in a real society of the unique instead of the manufactured society of the indistinguishable.