Nationalism

It is severely objectively 'unethical' to be a nationalist or to support nationalism. Borders are arbitrarily drawn lines on a planet which has no natural demarcation. Groups of people flock together to form a 'country' but for what reason? Nationalism suggests more importance is/ought to be given to the country in question. This, naturally comes at the cost of deeming other countries less important.
This is a ridiculous concept; you did not choose which geographical location you will be born into. You did not choose the country or its enemies and allies. You are literally supporting a country only because youhappen to be there. Not only is that irrational and abhorrently substance-less, it creates more problems than it solves. The dissonance created by virtue of this 'difference' in countries of origin is ludicrous.

 

It depends; there's nothing wrong about feeling pride for your nation and celebrating the fact that you belong to it. The problems, of course, arise when nationalism starts serving as an excuse to commit harm to others and to rule over them (as we've seen many times in history). One way or another, nationalism is a fact of life and is there to stay, so we may as well accept and see in what way can it benefit our lives. Us humans are, after all, social animals, and having a strong sense of identity is one of primary human needs.

 

Yes at this point nationalism is absolutely wrong. We should start with the fact that what is usually described as nationalism has little to do with the nation itself and more to do with the party trying to overrun it, which only leads to trouble. Beyond that, however, humanity has evolved past that point. There is no reason that any intelligent human being to be anything but a globalist and environmentalist. We are one race, one people!

 

Nations do exist for a reason though, people are united by means of language, ethnicity and culture. Also nations often find themselves within natural geographic borders. Divided by rivers, seas or mountains. Traveling from one country to another one often encounters large differences in landscape, and of course on a human level infrastructure and architecture.

I do however agree that nationalism is a very limited perspective on the world. I believe wholeheartedly that in the coming centuries we will more and more identify as a global civilization, moving beyond the semi-arbitrariness of the nation bound identity.

 

Nationalism is not an absolute construct and therefore cannot be measured absolutely. There is no way to define nationalism as inheritantly wrong with blaming the victims of imperialism or colonialism in many cases. To say that most did not have a choice of where they live is simply an ommission of generational history. Nationalism, except in the case of the invader, is often the strategy of the oppressed to liberate themselves from the oppressor by unifying across a common struggle as well as a common geographical location wherewith the former oppressed can call home.