The Power of Nationalism

While I have never felt much nationalist myself, I do believe in it's power. History has shown how some nationalist ideologies have helped countries grow. When people identify themselves as a group and realize that by doing something for the group they are possibly improving their own lives, they can work together, thus achieving much more.

So even though I wrote 'The Power of Nationalism', what it really is, is the power of people united under one (set of) reason(s), but in a more specific way. Such power is shown in the size of present day United States, which used the Manifest Destiny as pretext/motivation for the expansion; the rise of Soviet Union under communist beliefs; the rise of Germany post WW1, from a impoverished nation to being a threat to other European nations.

You might be thinking that these were terrible examples: death of Native Americans, wars with Mexico; mass killings in the USSR; well, don't even have to say anything about the Nazi regime I guess. But the thing is, this sort of unity among members of a group can cause great changes, and albeit any great empire throughout history has committed many atrocities, they all have also brought many technological advances, which, as we have seen in one of the first seminars, has improved the life of people all around the world, including in third world countries; people in those countries may have absurdly difficult lives when in comparison to people in developed countries, but when we think about how inequality has been constant throughout human history, things aren't truly worst now than they have ever been.

Further than that, nationalism may be a step towards an sentiment of unity that transcends nations; the EU is an example of how a war-torn continent is able to bring itself together and strive for new levels of cooperation that may lead to a brighter future.