Outside Enemy... Enemy Within...
I've mentioned some problems I have with nationalism before. Well, it's not that I hate it entirely. Unfortunetely, we don't live in an ideal world, and one of the bad things that usually happens is that governments use "nationalism" to make people submit to their will. Or, quoting Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World Revisited", "first to move the masses and then, having prided them loose from their traditional loyalties and moralities, to impose upon them (with the hypnotized consent of the majority) a new authoritarian order of his own devising".
In the book, that sentence isn't about nationalism but it's about Hitler and his aims. Anyway, the message fits, and Hitler was one who used it for the reason I said above.
As a sidenote, it's interesting to notice the influence that authority has over people. Claus once mentioned an experiment that revealed a high rate of obedience towards people with authority... That entry is worth checking.
And it looks that we're having a nationalism wave... and not necessarily a good one.
I don't even feel like looking for a link about the United States. Most people should know what has been happening since 9/11... in the US and in Middle East...
Daniel wrote about a youth movement in Russia called Nashi that supports the government. He also linked to this video explaining a little about the movement. Some points are scary... although we have to be careful about the veracity of all it's shown there, as Daniel himself says. The anti-americanism is an obvious choice, though.
Closer to my reality, Daniel also linked to a video about Japan in another of his posts. The video is about the recent proposal that Japan develops a full-fledged army. Currently it has only a "Self Defense Force". Part of the reason for that are the growing threats from North Korea (that always reminded me of a Japanese friend that thought that South Korea is "worse" than Iraq... I only imagine how Japanese media portraits both countries...) and China. The ironic point is that the only country in the world that was atomic bombed has politicians considering developing nuclear bombs...
And one thing in common I've noticed in those movements, Hitler included, is that they point some "external enemy" they "have to" fight against.
Well, having a common enemy is surely one of the things that can unite a group. For Brazilians, just imagine when the country is most "patriotic"... During the World Cup, when we have "common enemies"... Of course that's only one of the factors...
Plus, the more people believe that "enemy" threatens them, the more they would accept (almost) anything that they believe would help them against that "enemy".
But who's the real enemy? The ones pointed or the ones manipulating the hatred?
Considering all that, that campaign of the Brazilian government that was so criticized, "Eu sou Brasileiro e não desisto nunca" ("I'm Brazilian and I never give up". A campaign that had as aim improving the population's self-steem by showing Brazilian people who have overcome great misfortunes), doesn't seem so bad. At least it doesn't propagate nationalism through hatred, reviewing (i.e. manipulating) History or such...
Except that it was probably done to help undercovering some of the government's wrongdoings... A good example from them would be better.
In the book, that sentence isn't about nationalism but it's about Hitler and his aims. Anyway, the message fits, and Hitler was one who used it for the reason I said above.
As a sidenote, it's interesting to notice the influence that authority has over people. Claus once mentioned an experiment that revealed a high rate of obedience towards people with authority... That entry is worth checking.
And it looks that we're having a nationalism wave... and not necessarily a good one.
I don't even feel like looking for a link about the United States. Most people should know what has been happening since 9/11... in the US and in Middle East...
Daniel wrote about a youth movement in Russia called Nashi that supports the government. He also linked to this video explaining a little about the movement. Some points are scary... although we have to be careful about the veracity of all it's shown there, as Daniel himself says. The anti-americanism is an obvious choice, though.
Closer to my reality, Daniel also linked to a video about Japan in another of his posts. The video is about the recent proposal that Japan develops a full-fledged army. Currently it has only a "Self Defense Force". Part of the reason for that are the growing threats from North Korea (that always reminded me of a Japanese friend that thought that South Korea is "worse" than Iraq... I only imagine how Japanese media portraits both countries...) and China. The ironic point is that the only country in the world that was atomic bombed has politicians considering developing nuclear bombs...
And one thing in common I've noticed in those movements, Hitler included, is that they point some "external enemy" they "have to" fight against.
Well, having a common enemy is surely one of the things that can unite a group. For Brazilians, just imagine when the country is most "patriotic"... During the World Cup, when we have "common enemies"... Of course that's only one of the factors...
Plus, the more people believe that "enemy" threatens them, the more they would accept (almost) anything that they believe would help them against that "enemy".
But who's the real enemy? The ones pointed or the ones manipulating the hatred?
Considering all that, that campaign of the Brazilian government that was so criticized, "Eu sou Brasileiro e não desisto nunca" ("I'm Brazilian and I never give up". A campaign that had as aim improving the population's self-steem by showing Brazilian people who have overcome great misfortunes), doesn't seem so bad. At least it doesn't propagate nationalism through hatred, reviewing (i.e. manipulating) History or such...
Except that it was probably done to help undercovering some of the government's wrongdoings... A good example from them would be better.
3 comments:
Ah, mas eu acho que só não temos ainda umas campanhas nacionalistas pra valer, porque ainda existe muita gente que lembra desse tipo de coisa como sendo da época da ditadura militar. Espera só até o povo da nossa idade estar no poder; vai ser uma mistura de nacionalismo com aquelas campanhas sem noção que o "Povo do CCH" fazia na UEL...
"The ironic point is that the only country in the world that was atomic bombed has politicians considering developing nuclear bombs..."
Olha, aquele video do uchide eh interessante, mas eh uma pecinha ridicula de propaganda americana. Por mais que eu despreze nacionalismo de uma maneira geral, e ache pessima essa politica de estima ao nacionalismo do LDP, os EUA sao os ultimos que podem falar de outros a respeito, ja que o nacionalismo eh um suporte importante do regime atual deles.
Por exemplo, a frase que voce citou eh um exemplo de falsa informacao. O japao nao eh o unico pais em que os politicos querem a bomba. O iran eh outro. Israel foi outro. A india tambem foi. Sem falar pra koreia do norte.
Bleh, acho que eu deveria ir para o himalaia e virar um eremita.
Claus,
Acho que foi uma ma escolha de palavras. A ideia da frase eh que o unico pais que ja foi sofreu os impactos de uma bomba atomica (desconsiderando testes) tambem possui politicos querendo desenvolve-la.
Claro, o apelo ao desarmamento nuclear ainda eh muito maior que a forca dos que tem a ideia do Japao nuclear, ou mesmo militarista.
E os EUA sao os ultimos que podem falar de efeitos nocivos do nacionalismo... Sem falar que eles possivelmente tem interesse que o Japao nao se militarize. Mas eh interessante ver como a onda "nacionalista radical" ainda esta presente ou tomando forma no mundo atual sem muitas diferencas de como era anos atras.
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