Nationalism: Good or Bad?
October 25, 2016
International bankers such as the Rockefellers and the likes of Goldman-Sachs have contempt for national sovereignty. These bankers want, and use, global instruments of control such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and supra-state governments such as the European Union's government in Brussels. The so-called "free trade" agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the proposed Trans Pacific Partership Agreement (TPPA), are really not so much about free trade, but rather about giving the global elites freedom to impose their will on nations with sharp restrictions on what laws national governments can enact and enforce. Laws that might protect ordinary citizens from unsafe and unscrupulous corporate practices are increasingly "illegal" for nations to enact, much to the benefit of the multinational corporations and banks.
Furthermore, these international bankers and other billionaires are using "weapons of mass migration" to wreck havoc in the lives of ordinary people in Europe and the United States, and they prevent national governments from doing anything to stop this. The international ruling elites deliberately--but secretly!--create massive migration, and then declare it bigotry when people express opposition to it, as I discuss in some detail here and here.
Because the rights and welfare of ordinary people are being attacked by global (internationalist) forces that have contempt for national sovereignty, good people have rallied against these oppressive and anti-democratic forces under the banner of nationalism. The idea is simple: the people in a nation, not some international organization such as the WTO or the European Union, should have the final say about what laws are enacted and enforced in that nation. Perfectly true!
But does that mean nationalism is a good thing? No, it does not. Why not?
Let's start by identifying what exactly is wrong with an organization such as the WTO having the power to tell a national government what laws it can or cannot enact. The wrongness lies in the fact that it violates a morally right principle. That principle is this:
People in a local community who value equality (in the sense of no rich and no poor and "from each according to ability, to each according to need") and mutual aid (helping one another rather than being pitted against against others in competition to be made more controllable)--i.e., egalitarians, who happen to be the vast majority of people--should only be obliged to obey laws that are written in their local community assembly at which they, and only they, are welcome to participate as equals.
The way this principle--called "voluntary federation of egalitarians"--makes it possible to achieve social order on a large (even global, if desired for certain things) scale without class inequality is described here.
Nationalism is the contrary idea that as long as a national government is composed only of individuals of the correct nationality (who may even be anti-egalitarians who want class inequality) and as long as it is "legitimate" in some sense that may vary from one nation to another (such as being voted in or being a Marxist party or being a religious elite), then the individuals who constitute that government have a right to write laws that all egalitarians in the nation must obey even though they never had a chance to participate in the writing of those laws (never mind as equals with all the other law-writers). Nationalism is thus an example of the application of the morally wrong Authoritarian Principle, which says that one must obey the highest body of government no matter what.
The Authoritarian Principle is used by billionaires to control hundreds of millions of people just by gaining control over a relative handful of individuals in a central national government by using their billions of dollars to influence these individuals.
The ideology of nationalism says that the most important aspect of a person is his/her nationality, not whether he/she aims to shape society by egalitarian or anti-egalitarian values. Nationalism is used by oppressive elites to make people think an oppressive central (national) government must be obeyed because it consists of people with the right nationality and claims to represent "the nation."
To the extent that one is influenced by nationalism, then to that same extent one is focused on the nationality of the authorities, and not on the truly important thing: whether authorities are shaping society by egalitarian or anti-egalitarian values, whether they are working to end or defend class inequality. Nationalism says that if you know a person's nationality then you know the most important thing about him/her. In truth, knowing a person's nationality doesn't tell one anything about the most important thing about him/her, which is whether he/she is for or against class inequality.
The egalitarian way to oppose the internationalist bankers and their global instruments of social control is to explicitly advocate and fight for voluntary federation of egalitarians, not to fall into the trap of nationalism, which the billionaires are very skillful in using to control us and to impose class inequality on us.
THOUGH NATIONALISM IS A BAD THING, IT APPEALS TO PEOPLE BY PRETENDING TO BE A GOOD THING
The great appeal of nationalism for many people is that it pretends to be a good thing--for solidarity with people like oneself (of the same nationality or, for that matter, the same race or ethnicity), for mutual aid among people living in the same nation (or of the same race or ethnicity). It appeals to the very positive value people place on the Golden Rule. Ruling elites promote nationalism by making it seem that it is simply about the noble aim of rejecting selfishness and caring about other people with whom one lives and being willing even to sacrifice for the welfare of others. Yes! This is a very noble aim, based on very positive values. Egalitarianism champions this aim and these values. But nothing good comes from equating these positive things with the dangerous idea of nationalism, which is that as long as a government is composed of people of the "right" nationality (or ethnic group, etc.) we should follow and trust and obey it.
Ruling elites know exactly how nationalism enables them to dominate and oppress ordinary people. This is why they promote nationalism with flags and create bogeyman enemies to make us "rally around the flag" and accuse anybody who doesn't obey the nation's rulers of being "unpatriotic." Nationalism is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Beware of anybody promoting nationalism. Respond instead with egalitarianism.