Nationalism; Positive or Negative?

Nationalism; Positive or Negative?

Nationalism can be defined as the collective; shared, sense of belonging of people who identify themselves as a nation. Nationalism is all around us, every day in both large and small cases, having both positive and negative effects. It cannot be fully positive or fully negative because every situation and circumstances are so different, and theretofore so are the end results. It can be as simple as pride in your country during the times of the Olympic Games or as extreme as an ethnic or religious group of people fighting for their rights while facing discrimination. Whether a nation itself is large or small, and despite of the reason formed, it’s natural for a person to join this nation. As a human being we all desire that sense of acceptance, and friendship. Being in a nation brings strength in the form a group, when you all feel the same about something it brings passion and loyalty. This can be a very positive thing when it comes to extreme cases of discrimination, oppression and death such as the examples of Tibetan people fighting for freedom from China and Ethnic Albanians fighting for their freedom from Serbs in Kosovo. Nationalism also a positive thing in less severe cases that still need change evicted, such as when a group of people have all become harmed by the same thing, or believe something is wrongful. If they were alone in being harmed by something or believing in its wrongfulness and all others disagreed with them, there would be no chance of bringing change. But when you share your opinion with others, not only can you bring attention to your case, but change would be fair since it is needed/wanted by more than one person. Despite of nationalism being so helpful in these cases it can also be a really negative thing. Group mentality is known for being a negative thing, ending in street riots after a sports game or a political shooting after a new leader has been elected. What is not as commonly known is that this is a form of nationalism, when a group of people who feel wronged or angry towards the same thing and instead of using this to fight peacefully for change they become extreme and violent, causing pain, harm or death to others. This can also be known as fanaticism, (also a form of nationalism). No matter what the reason, nationalism is all around us every day, and it can end very positively or very negatively.
From almost the beginning of mankind, there have always been cases where a certain group of people are oppressed and discriminated against, and even now in our modern, more equal world are there many, many cases of this. Sadly, there are even cases still going on, such as the people of the Chinese province of Tibet. Where Tibetan people are fighting for separation from China, because of the horrible situation they are in. They have next to no rights, and are beaten and/or killed for trying to obtain more rights, for trying to practice any of their traditions, and are forced to attend re-education and become assimilated into the Chinese population. Though they have not yet become free, without nationalism they would not have made any progress either, and they also would not have been able to get the world’s attention and support. On a more positive note, there are many cases of success thanks to nationalism is cases very similar to Tibet. In Northern Ireland, the religious tension between Catholic’s and Protestants was so extreme, that it caused most of the Catholic population to be denied the right to a job, land and to vote, and also caused the death and injuries of many Catholic citizens. Without the sense of nationalism, the Irish Catholics would never have been able to become strong enough, or fight long enough to win separation form the British Protestants. Another example can be found in the case of Kosovo, where Ethnic Albanians were discriminated and oppressed after immigrating there by the Serbians. When a group of people are forced to immigrate out of their home country for a shared reason, they are already going to feel a sense of nationalism but when in the new country they move to they are exposed to a whole new suffering this sense of nationalism grows. Because the Serbs believed that the Albanian people were living on their holy land, they were treated horribly; given no rights, starved, verbally and physically abused and even killed on a daily basis. Their children were denied education; the adults denied the right to employment and food. They were beaten and killed by military while just walking down the street. These things all contributed to the formation of a nation, a nation to fight for their rights and separation from the Serbian people. If they did not come together as a group they would not have been strong enough, and instead would have just been killed. They became the majority, they used their numbers to fight and stand together, and they used their sense of nationalism to gain freedom. These are such rare and amazing cases, how a group of people who are in danger of becoming extinct from their situations, can rise up together and achieve what they are fighting for because of nationalism. Rare, but real.
Nationalism is not just found in extreme cases, though these are more heard of and thought of because of media presentation and choice of story. What most don’t think of is that nationalism comes in less extreme, but still important cases as well. A very recent example is that of Amanda Todd, a teenage girl who committed suicide after being bullied for years, and who’s story blew up on the internet shortly after. Many people who watched and shared her story formed a nation, as they all felt there was wrongfulness in her situation and wanted to have her story known, and to prevent future stories of the same circumstances. A nation was formed because people all felt the same about something, and using this strength they got millions and millions of people to read her story on different social media sites, and won justice for her in the form of arrests of cyber bullies and new anti-bullying rules and laws in different places in the world. Other examples could come from stories where a group of people have all been directly harmed by the same thing, and come together as a group to fight for change. A true example of this could be how a group of people who had either lost someone or injured themselves due to texting and driving came together to form a nation called Don’t Text and Drive, and because of this thing they shared in common with others, their nation grew to be very large. They got their issue very heard of, and started The Pledge, in which people pledged to not text and drive. They were fighting for new laws against texting and driving, and because of their strong sense of nationalism they were able to succeed in this. Ergo, these situations go to show that nationalism has positive effects on things every day, things that affect you every day. Nationalism saves lives all the time, because it gives people the chance to actually change something that is harmful instead of fighting alone, gaining to recognition. You are surrounded every day by little and big positive outcomes of nationalism.
Sadly, not all people can use nationalism for positive things; some people have to use their strength in a nation to carry out harmful acts. This is called fanaticism, and it is an extreme case of nationalism in which the members of a nation cause harm to another person(s). A fanatic is more commonly described as an extremist. Cases involving fanaticism are not incredibly common, but still common enough to make nationalism a less positive thing. A very heard of example of fanaticism, that has happened in more than one year are the street riots after a major sports game. In June 2011 after the Vancouver Canucks lost the hockey game to the Boston Bruins riots erupted in the streets of downtown Vancouver. A witness describes the situation “Blood in our streets. I saw people on the ground, bleeding. Shattered glass everywhere. Police cars set alight. Major bridges are now closed, preventing public access into the downtown core. Transit is plugged up, there’s no way out. More police and fire crews are arriving, from the suburbs, but again, it seems too late. And as I write this, the sun has just set. Vancouver, what a disgrace.” Vancouver city officials say a total of 29 businesses were damaged and about 15 vehicles were overturned or burned. Portable toilets were also toppled and trash cans were torched. Damages to just one store, not all in total but just one store were over 1 million dollars. Over 100 people were arrested, and many were charged damaging their future employment, travel and family life. Many were hurt during the riots, and families were forced to flee their homes. This shows an extreme case of nationalism, where people shared something in common (anger at their favorite team’s loss) and felt a sense of belonging, but turned it into something that quickly became out of control and caused large amounts of damage. Another example of fanaticism is the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. His killer was part of a nation that did not believe people of darker ethnic color deserve rights as people with light skin tone do. Martin Luther King Jr. was an advocate of equality and rights for those of African American descent. The man who killed him, named James Earl Grey belonged to a nation of people who believed in segregation and unfair treatment of those with darker skin tones. He was a member of the George Wallace Presidential Campaign, which was for segregation and often volunteered at its headquarters. He had something in common with the other members, and this gave him a sense of belonging and nationalism. This sense of nationalism came from a group causing harm toward a certain ethnic group, and ended in the murder of an anti-war and civil rights activist. Nationalism is more often positive then not, but in rare situations it is absolutely not. It is the complete opposite, the reason and motivation for a person or group to cause harm towards a person, verbally, physically or even economically.
Nationalism is found all around us every day, and all people belong to some sort of a nation, whether it is pride in their country or believing in a certain sports team. Nationalism is the cause of happiness for people, for everybody likes to feel accepted, like they belong. It is how a group of people can come together, and as a group people are always stronger then by themselves. This strength in a group is so needed when trying to make a change or get a certain situation known about. Not just in small situations involving normal people every day, or in larger situations where there is a very important problem to be changed or solved, but also in very extreme cases involving life or death situations can nationalism be a positive and necessary thing. Sadly, it can also be a negative thing, in extreme cases of fanaticism where the members of a nation use their sense of nationalism to motivate them to cause harm to another living creature. Though nationalism may not always be positive, it is absolutely necessary, and more positive than not. There are so many examples of groups of people that only survived because of nationalism, laws that are only in place because of nationalism, harmful substances, commercials, products and even people that are put to a stop because of nationalism. Our world would not be the same without nationalism, and it certainly would be a much worse place.