Nations and countries are an artificial invention of mankind. Centuries of wars, migrations and disasters have shaped the whole world into countries; some of them big others small, some strong and wealthy, others weak and poor. No matter how old a country is, the same question arises over again, where do countries get their legitimacy from?
Some nations are based on a common language or culture such as Germany or Italy. Some countries on the other hand are the result of History’s caprices and engulf a large number of ethnicities, cultures and nations, like China. However, countries are an invention of the human being which has had devastating effects.
Countries lead to patriotism and this leads to what has been the 19th and 20th centuries’ cancer: nationalism. This term, in all of its forms (racism, imperialism, fascism among others), has caused an uncountable number of wars, being the two World Wars its most notorious creations. Nationalism proposes that one’s country (with all its implications) is better than that of its neighbors. “My culture is superior to yours, my history is richer than yours, my country is better than yours.” This has blinded people throughout centuries and it reached its peak in the 19th century with a wave of nationalism that swept across Europe, which created modern Greece, Italy and Germany. The only good thing that came together with nationalism was romanticism. Nationalism saw itself strengthened by the totalitarian regimes of the first half of the 20th century. Fortunately, a large number of countries now enjoy democracy which rejects this sort of discriminatory approaches. However, this illness has not yet been eradicated and is still present in every country around the globe.
“My country is the best.” This is the affirmation that summarizes patriotism, which “is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched” according to the French writer Guy de Maupassant. Believing itself to be superior to another human is a ridiculous idea but it is even more absurd when it is based on the fact of place of birth. I laugh at the fact that those die-hard patriots (nationalists I call them), from whatever country they come, would defend opposite positions if they were to be borne some miles north, south, east or west, within the borders of the other country they see as inferior. It is contradictory, funny but nevertheless serious.
Borders are a creation of some privileged human beings: the statesmen. It is easy to see that when one looks at a map of Africa or the Middle East, where some borders are straight lines embarrassingly artificial. Those borders have caused more harm than good: wars have taken place because of borders badly drawn by Western imperial powers, families have been separated (just remember the chaos caused by the partition of India or by the the population exchange between Greece and Turkey) bringing pain to innocent people.
Until people don’t accept the fact that human beings are the same, no matter their language, culture, religion or race, this problem of nationalism won’t be solved. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,” said Mark Twain, and I could not agree more. Nationalism is the refuge of the ignorant.
As a radical naïve I cannot stand the idea of nationalism. Ignore flags, anthems and all that patriotic paraphernalia! Countries should not exist, borders and nationalities shouldn’t exist. We all belong to the same nation: the world. That doesn’t mean though that we should march towards a homogenization, for diversity is a rare jewel that has to be conserved.
“My country is the world, my countrymen are mankind” is a quote by William Lloyd Garrison.
