Has Nationalism Been a Force for Order and Cohesion than for Conflict and Discrimination - Essay Example

Has nationalism been a force for order and cohesion than for conflict and discrimination Introduction The birth of nationalism is associated with thebirth of the nations. Many differing views have come up as the reasons for the birth of the nations. Man being a social animal tends to create societies. He is a social animal primarily because of the fear in him for his 'enemies'. These 'enemies' could be other animals in smaller societies, other nations or people in larger context and even nature when had a panoramic view. While fear could have been the major inspiration for coming together in the earlier days, growth of a country and living against other men met the spirit of nationalism had to exist (Levy, 2000). As pointed out by Marx and Engels (Benner, 1995), nationalism can also be looked at as a view created by the upper echelons of the society so that they could thrive over the rest of the people in the society. Whatever is the cause for the birth of the nations, they are here and politics between the nations and due to the nations are very much the play (Kedourie, 1993). With this nationalism at its peak during the World Wars, there can not be secondary thoughts on their contribution to war and violence in this world. And now with the rising sense of democracy and pluralism, the countries and the nations provide a platform for integrating the thoughts of millions and converting them to similar lines before integrating and bringing peace to the world. Nationalism as a force for conflict and discrimination Nationalism was the driving force of two world wars. Those nations that did not have any idea as to what nationalism is became 'nationalistic' after the end of the First World War and more did so after the second. This gave rise to an unprecedented nationalistic fervour all over the world. Subsequent to this, there was an increased incidence of violence with every nation racing for superiority among the multitudes on the earth. Arms race, nuclear race and a number of other destructive races came in place. Earlier on when the kingdoms and their kings were small, the amount of wealth they could accumulate and thereby fight with was less. But with the concept of nation getting into the minds of the people, there is a larger bounty of money that could be shared between the people and for the military power. Nations allocated and spent large budgets that could help them build large destructive weapons. Naturally it is no surprise that US of A is the first country that made, tested and used a WMD. Nationalism bred competition. Competitions are always not healthy and soon bred internecine war that has destroyed people all over the world and has caused immense discomfort and death to millions. National ideologies did not alleviate the poverty in third world countries but instead helped the rich to rob the poor further in the form of large scale taxation (Coley, 1992). Nationalism has also bred contempt for other people. A superiority of races that differentiated people and created people from powerful nations (economic and political) and weak nations, has been made possible by the formation of nations. This in turn breeds an ongoing terrorist and other manifestations of discontent among the people because of the rich-poor divide. Nationalism as a force for order and cohesion Nationalism was a result of an effort by the modern man in fighting the dividing ideologies that separated and alienated societies from one another, says Kedourie (1993). It was an answer using which the modern man aimed at bridging the gap between societies and try to create a synchronised life between them. The will of the individuals are getting better recognised as a nation. Only the creation of nations could bring about democracy and put an end to aristocracy that gave no say to the people in the country. Since the governance is in the hands of the people, most of the issues are clearly sorted out leading to more peaceful coexistence with in the country. There is more cohesion among the population as a single nation. This unifier could bring about the best performance in its people for their nation (Borntraeger, 1999). There could be better results in the performance of the nation as a whole and in alleviating poverty in nations. More concentrated work is being done to modernise nations that is below par with the developed countries. Nationalism has bred a well synchronised police and human rights machinery in most of the countries. This has resulted in the judicial system that is impartial and is common to all men and women in the country. Equality before the law has become a watch word. This has been made possible only because of the influence of the masses and the mass media that is able to cover the happenings at one end of world and communicate to the other. Hans Kohen (1944) conforms to this idea when he says that nationalism can develop only with the rise in 'print capitalism, public education system, growth of population, increased influence of the masses and new information and propaganda techniques. All this make nationalism a mark for the common man bring him up in the front like nowhere else in the history of mankind. Down the history lane, it is found that the power of the common man has been slowly increasing. People have been taking power from the kings and the emperors and later from the governments. It has been consistently found that the power of the governance will further move towards the people. Even in many of the democracies today, the federal structure is very much under question. However, over a period of time, this would further move towards the people, thereby the nations will encourage forming cohesive and more supportive decisions for the people. Nations are a part of the evolution of the human kind and they would help in augmenting them further for the later growth in the history of human beings. Conclusion History of mankind is replete with violence, conflict and discrimination in various forms and shapes. Civilisation has been progressing towards peaceful co-existence all along this large scale mass of destruction. Nations are one more step in that direction; though, nationalism breeds to some extent contempt and conflict between nations, it breeds harmony within. There is relative peace within every nation. Between nations too, there is a large scale movement towards peace. With nations in place, it is easier to negotiate and bring about settlements for centuries old conflicts. This makes nations a major step towards peace and prosperity. This is also bringing in economic and cultural cohesiveness among the members of the nation. Nations are one more intermediate step for mankind before a global community is reached. References 1. Benner, Erica. (1995) Really Existing Nationalisms: A post Communist View from Marx and Engels. Clarendon Press Oxford. 2. Borntraeger, Ekkehard W. (1999) Borders, ethnicity and National Self-Determination. Baumueller, Vienna. 3. Coley, Linda. (1992) Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837. Yale University Press, New Haven and London. 4. Kedourie, Ellie (1993) Nationalism, ed. Blackwell. Oxford UK and Cambridge US. 5. Kohn, Hans (1944) The Idea of Nationalism: A Study of its Origins and Background. First Ed. The MacMillan Company, New York. 6. Levy, Jacob. (2000) The multiculturalism of fear. Oxford University Press, New York. 7. Read More