My definitions of Patriotism and Nationalism

Posted on: January 27, 2021 at 10:27:48 CT

Patriotism is putting your country's interests over your personal interests. That is doing something that is harmful to your personal interests in order to advance your country's interests (and by country I mean the entire society of that country as opposed to the interests of politicians).

Nationalism is cultural role playing to signal your submissiveness to the prevailing cultural norms. It is cheerleading for your country to advance your own personal interests. Nationalism has its appropriate purposes when a country is divided and the division is harming the interests of the country/society. It is used to unify the country and tamp down counterproductive divisions. Generally those conditions occur relatively infrequently in the US. More generally, nationalism is used to promote excessive defense spending and to suppress legitimate political dissent. The typical situation in the US is excessive nationalism.

The most useful way to understand nationalism is to look at how it has been used in other countries throughout time. That eliminates a lot of the distortions produced by looking at US history (i.e. we are too close to those US situations to look at them objectively.)

Nationalism is a lot more common than patriotism.

Edited by Knucklehead at 10:39:57 on 01/27/21