Patriotism versus Nationalism
Sunday - May 03, 2009 - 12:35 PMThe US society is almost equally divided between conservatives and liberals. At times it may seem like one group is outnumbering the other, but that's usually a result of growing frustration and distrust with whoever is currently in the White House and forms the majority of Congress. Whether it's every 4 or 8 years, things tend to shift a little bit from one side to the other. Looking at this process over longer period of time, one can easily draw the conclusion that I did at the beginning of this post.
What bothers me sometimes is the abuse of the words "patriotism" and "nationalism" by either one of the groups. Of course everyone wants to be painted with the word "patriot". With "nationalism" it's a little bit of a different story. But it remains a common practice by both sides to call the others non-patriotic, nationalistic and all the synonyms of those. So what really is the difference between patriotism and nationalism?
I would like to quote a few lines from Wikipedia. I hope you can read it, stop for a moment and think deeper into those two related, but yet very distinct terms. It helped me and I hope it will help others too, to better understand the use and abuse of those terms:
"Patriotism is love of and/or devotion to one's country. The word comes from the Greek patris. However, patriotism has had different meanings over time, and its meaning is highly dependent upon context, geography and philosophy.
Although patriotism is used in certain vernaculars as a synonym for nationalism, nationalism is not necessarily considered an inherent part of patriotism. Among the ancient Greeks, patriotism consisted of notions concerning language, religious traditions, ethics, law and devotion to the common good, rather than pure identification with a nation-state. Scholar J. Peter Euben writes that for the Greek philosopher Socrates, "patriotism does not require one to agree with everything that his country does and would actually promote analytical questioning in a quest to make the country the best it possibly can be."
"Nationalism refers to an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all specialists accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a modern phenomenon originating in Europe."
