The Dark Side of Nationalism

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of enjoying my Canada Day in the country’s capital! It was an exciting weekend, filled with more red and white than I’ve ever seen in my life.

Before I continue, I’d like to give a small shout out to my fellow INDEVOUR and friend, Gina, who is a native Ottawian – okay, she’s sort of an immigrant, but she’s lived most of her life in Ottawa; she spent most of Saturday touring the city with me, teaching me little facts along the way! It was a blast.

In my 21 (almost 22!) years of being a Canadian and a resident of the planet Earth, this was my first time celebrating Canada Day, as well as my first Canada Day in Ottawa. My previous July 1sts have consisted of nothing more than my day-to-day routines and maybe catching a glimpse of the fireworks from my backyard if I'm lucky. This year was different; everything about it made me feel proud to be Canadian and it was the first time I could express this pride without it having to be associated with Olympics or hockey!

Being programmed to relate everything back to development (also known as permanent geek mode), the day’s high levels of Canadian nationalism lead me to ponder about the effects of one's pride and whether there is more to nationalism than chants and colourful flags. Could it be that nationalism has a dark side?

Some theorists believe that violence, war, and certain hate crimes are a by-product of people getting wrapped up in nationality as an integral part of their identity. Associated with nationalism are ideas
such as:
     - My country and its people are the best in the world;
     - My country is better than other countries;
     - I have a duty to my country;
     - And, I have a duty to protect my country, its people, and its
       interests.
If you look at these phrases carefully, they denote a sense of superiority and may even be potential sources of conflict if misguided.

In such cases, nationalism can also foster danger and animosity when brought through, “patriotism,” and “fighting for your country.” By uniting people around a common identity, nationalism is simultaneously creating, “the others,” as an identity for those who do not fall into the national bond group.

Throughout centuries, wars have been magnified by differences in national identity. Even today issues arise around differences in nationalism. For example, one blogger argues that Quebec nationalism, as envisioned by its founders in the 50s and 60s, was set on making French Canadians equal partners in Canada. The blogger goes on to say, “Somewhere along the line, the concept of equality has been lost - replaced with the notion of separate and better.” Similarly, differences in national pride led to violent protests and conflict between the Chinese government and Tibetans prior to the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Don’t get me wrong – I love being Canadian. I think nationalism is a great thing because it can promote unity and a common identity WHEN USED in positive contexts. Moreover, having national pride and feeling a sense of community has been shown to be an essential condition for the existence of democracy.

The key concept within nationalism is to then promote equality between groups versus superiority to one or any other group. Pride in one’s country is great as long as we steer away from labeling it as better than others. An extension of that train of thought may be to also avoid terms such as developed and developing countries due to the association that being developed means to imitate Western countries as an end goal.

I take pride in calling Canada my home. The question to ask is when does that pride get too far? When does nationalism become a threat?