It all seems rather deep for a quote found on an estranged Reddit thread, but despite the origins of this quote, it sparked my thinking:
Is nationalism bad?
I am from Scotland. I wouldn’t say I’m ‘in love’ with my country, I certainly wouldn’t do anything as radical as dying for it, nor am I certain I would even call myself a patriot, yet somehow I still have a sense of pride. We are the ones who brought the world penicillin, the telephone, colored photography, television, Dolly the Sheep, and Halloween to name but a few. In fact, the second most sung song in the world, ‘Auld Lang Syne’ (topped only by ‘Happy Birthday’) was written by a Scot. Even the most stereotypical images conjured of my country bring back potent feelings of honor and self-identity. And there is something within that which I feel brings us a sense of unity. We think of Balmoralism- we see the Bens, the moors, the heather- and we feel proud. We look at our collective history, and we feel grief. In fact as a nation, and for want of better phrasing, we have been f*cked over constantly. Just look at the Highland Clearances for example. Occurring during the 18th and 19th centuries, the clearances saw thousands of people being brutally evicted from their homes and left penniless, with those who refused often being assaulted and even burned alive inside their own houses. The reason for this? Murder makes money. Afterwards, the land was repopulated by cheviot, a breed of Scottish sheep, who brought in a healthier profit than the people who once so vexatiously inhabited it. Besides this, we have endured things like ethnic cleansing, where an entire culture was banned by law, and suffered through slaughters like the Battle of Culloden, where a ‘no quarter’ order was given, Scots were massacred in their hundred. (For some reference this was predominantly caused by the English. We’re still quite mad.)
Despite this, we have a malicious past too. The Scots, in particular being incorporated within Britain, have stuck our grubby wee hands into more than our fair share of conflict. Shamefully, I can confirm that the Scottish have been involved in things like the genocide of aboriginal people, particularly in Canada, played a huge part in the construction of the British Empire, and even helped in establishing the K.K.K. (hence the term ‘Klan’).
This all begs the question, does nationalism make us glorify this?
It seems to me as though our patriotism makes us blind to our history. We become selective. We take all the events which we can celebrate, mourn over, or find scapegoats for, while the rest are forgotten, or dressed up in enough tartan and tweed that we can bypass it.
But nationalism has more effects than just this. All it takes is a quick google search, whether it be through history pages, or even Twitter tags, to find that nationalism is a concept which has divided us. Racism and Xenophobia are problems with which we have been afflicted with for centuries, and are still hugely prevalent to this day. A quick look at current affairs will defend this very statement, a look at our leaders too. But the problem with such strong patriotism is that we no longer see each other as equal. We are no longer people to each other: if anything we are places. We are Scottish, English, American, Australian, Syrian, Lebanese, Korean. We are not the same. We are foreign. That makes us strange. That makes us different. And in the eyes of many, that makes us insignificant.
What makes this even more worrying is that this concept is not just words, dangerous in itself. This concept manifests itself into our policies. I can’t begin to imagine the amount of time I have watched news reports horrified, as those who claim to represent me, so callously deny aid to those desperately vulnerable in other countries, or reject helpless refugees, who have committed no other crimes apart from, in the eyes of Westminster, being foreign.
The most recent events unfolding in the U.K. which I thought was evident of this were the new debates involving the National Health Service. Particularly in recent years, the N.H.S. has been under huge strain, and this has not been helped by the surge in medical tourism brought to this country, due to our free health care. Because of this, officials have decided that those coming from abroad in order to utilize the N.H.S. should be charged large sums in order to receive their health care. And I can see why the government are doing this. They want British taxes used for British people, and currently, that is not happening, so they must prioritize. The problem is that the issues lie within that prioritization. Everyone is entitled to some form of universal health care- it is a human right. And everyone using the N.H.S is worthy enough to use it. The reason people have to come to this country is because the health care in their country isn’t universal. They arrive, with serious, even life-threatening conditions, with often no other realistic place to go, but instead, we dismiss them with our borders and our pride. We tell them that we are a country full of acceptance and equality, that we view life as important- of course, that’s only if you’re British.
But why is all of this so important? Well it seems that increasingly, we are living is a Nationalist society, and you only have to look at the events taken place within the past year to see this. Locally, I saw the effects of the Brexit campaign, which although passed as a program to benefit the people of Britain and it’s economy, was ultimately a facade for the xenophobic rhetoric designed to halt immigration. History then repeated itself, with the U.S. election taking place, and the presidency eventually ‘won’ by a man whose manifesto, amongst other things, was comprised of divisive, ignorant rants, aimed at dividing a people, and creating a feeling of national superiority- a national ‘greatness’.
With that in mind then, here is something to think upon.
If you want to make your country great again, was is ever great in the first place?
