SHOULD YOU SHOW YOU ARE NATIONALISTIC

 

NATIONALISM  VS  PATRIOTISM,  ANOTHER MEANS OF SIMPLIFYING ONE'S LIFE

What is nationalism? As a student, how can you show your nationalism?

Ahmet Celebiler

, Ph.D (ABD) International Studies, University of Denver (1974)

Answered just now

Do not confuse nationalism with patriotism. Nationalism is a political concept and applies to governments and the political system. As such, it is in the same categorization as communism, capitalism, liberalism, etc. A person cannot show their nationalism or socialism. To be nationalistic is a different matter and is no different than being racist or a chauvinist.

Patriotism, on the other hand, means commitment to the ideals, beliefs, emotions and aims regarding the interests of your country as specified by the founders, the politicians who followed, the educational system which indoctrinated the youth and the propaganda machine which promulgated the adherence of the citizens so that they will be willing to sacrifice themselves, their families and property for the published “good of the state” sometimes meaning, the good of an elite, the good of politicians, the good of certain organizations……so that they can have a real or symbolic place at a special cemetery, having fulfilled their missions.

The best you can do to show your nationalism as a student is to wave the flag of your country at any opportunity, learn the names of all high level government officials and make obeisance to them in public.

Showing patriotism requires that you enlist in the military or a militia, or a vigilante group and that you argue vehemently and sometimes violently at every occasion that your country and your way of life  is the best of all possible ones, past, present and future, or you may prefer a clandestine organization with similar activities.

PS. These are not class notes and were never disclosed in any college course.

LOVE AND HATE POLITICS

 SOME PERSPECTIVES

Originally posted as responses to Quora questions

1. How are you going to show the sense of nationalism to your country?

Why should I? I do not believe that nationalism is a good or useful thing

Nationalism has no basis in rational thought, human psychology and value for scientific or educational development.

2. Should every country become self-reliant

No country can be self-reliant economically or politically. The rich countries need poorer countries for their raw materials and cheap labor and as markets for their industry.

The strong countries need politically weak ones to boss, to control and to assist them in achieving their diplomatic and militaristic aims.

The strong countries also experiment with social engineering and propaganda using their puppets in the weaker countries and the ignorance of the general population.

It is true that all of the above is temporary as human history goes, but there were always the exploited and the exploiters, the subjects and the law makers. Their descriptions change but not their characters. ethics, beliefs and self-righteousness which remain the same.

MILLENNIA OF PUZZLES

 

Some Romans,

citizens in Rome 

where meeting roads cause traffic jams

or citizenship seekers 

possibly lining up at gates of a civil office

not housing priceless art

 homelessly

even with asylum

trusting 

false hope and belief

in their mien and faith

for temporary illusory freedom 

And forgetting them for a moment or two

we continued looking for some Final Puzzle Pieces

 joined by slaves of our own making 

who searched on and under tables,

searched in folds of table cloth  and on carpets

tried dark corners of boxes

and darker corners through cataracts

spiralling towards a nuclear whole of unknown dimensions

that even Madam Sosostris could not see in her cards

which, to tell the truth, actually were the missing pieces

of the eternal puzzle that no citizen or refugee or slave 

will recognize, understand or solve.

ahmet Celebiler

March 4, 2022

Notes : Some of our travels took us to Rome where we argued family

membershop in EU; to Madrid where we mistook a queue of refugees for 

admision seekers to a minor museum; and back to The Wasteland where

non-terracotta armies actually fight for unfathomable reasons and black holes 

devour time crystals while T.S. Elliott talks to us of fortunes, family and cats.

HABITS AND PECULIARITIES OF THE POLITICIAN SPECIES

Politicians are not born but bred through painstaking education, training and the use of mirrors. This does not make them magicians but very susceptible to even the most inexperienced master of illusion, sometimes referred to as "Master of Lies" and its minions who own, manage and work for interest groups.

 Politicians , by definition, cannot have habits (even those that are worn)

Also there is usually nothing peculiar about them. The breed has been examined, investigated and studied for thousands of years, even before any of the social sciences were developed.

Their main undisclosed duty seems to be to make life miserable for humanity and to destroy the physical world humanity needs to survive.

They can mobilize ignorant, selfish, and greedy people through rhetoric, propaganda, control of the educational system and the media, and un-questioned belief systems using funds from vested interests and those they can usurp.