RISE OF NATIONALITIES
A nation or nationality is a group of people tied together to a particular place through legal status & cultural tradition. In principle, the cultural values shared with others of the same ethnicity derive from religion, language, & material culture, whereas those shared with others of the same nationality derive from voting, obtaining a passport, & performing civic duties. In the United States, the term nationality is generally kept reasonably distinct from ethnicity & race …show more content…
Politicians & governments try to instill loyalty through nationalism, which is loyalty & devotion to a nationality. Nationalism typically promotes a sense of national consciousness that exalts one nation above all others & emphasizes its culture & interests as opposed to those of other nations. People display nationalism by supporting a state that preserves & enhances the culture & attitudes of their nationality. For many states, the mass media are the most effective means of fostering nationalism. States foster nationalism by promoting symbols of the nation-state, such as flags & songs. One of the strongest forms of political protest is to burn a state's flag, & there is wide support in the United States for laws to make burning the Stars & Stripes illegal. Nationalism can have a negative impact. The sense of unity within a nation-state is sometimes achieved through the creation of negative images of other nation-states. Nationalism is an important example of a centripetal force, which is an attitude that tends to unify people & enhance support for a state. (The word centripetal means "directed toward the center"; it is the opposite of centrifugal, which means to spread out from the center.) Most nation-states find that the best way to achieve citizen support is to emphasize shared attitudes that unify the