Definition and Importance of Nationalism and Patriotism

Nationalism holds the ideology of political, social, and economic system working all together in the development of the particular nation, with the aim of maintenance of self-governed homeland. It also believes in the concept of sharing culture, language, religion, politics and common ancestry and developing it further more in the nation.  Hence, it seeks to preserve nation’s culture by achievements for the nation. Nationalism is often linked to patriotism.  Patriotism holds the ideology of love or devotion to a homeland also known as nation pride.  In the essay it is discussed in details how media globalization has weakened the awareness of patriots in the nation or worldwide.

Nationalism gives the importance to culture, language and heritage.  It consists of political, social and economic systems that work together for the betterment of the particular nation, with aim of maintenance of self-governed homeland. It maintains a nation’s culture and takes pleasure in nation’s performance and therefore people link it to patriotism.  Patriotism means national pride that is, love for the homeland and devoting their love to the nation and alliance with other citizens who share the same values (Primoratz and Igor,  2017). This is the combination of culture, ethics, politics and history. Patriotism is closely related to the concepts of nationalism. Example, in British nationalism this nation consists of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish people and all of them are united by political, social and economic system.  British unionism try to obtain the political union that is the United Kingdom and hence this strengths the association between the other countries of the United Kingdom. The problem is that people equate nationalism with patriotism (Blaug, 2016).

Patriotism is love for country and its culture whereas nationalism is love for the nation unconditionally without any benefits in return from the nation and patriotism expects something better for the citizen of the country. But this blind faith is harmful too. People believing or trusting on the nation in return of nothing can make them do anything in just for the love of the nation. Nationalism and patriotism are both different to each other. There are so many differences as if nationalism means giving more importance to culture and legacy whereas on the other hand patriots are the person who has affection for the homeland with more importance on value and reliance. Nationalists are the believers of perfection of state, hence they never question the intentions or actions and hence questioning the state can make them anti-nationalist. Whereas the patriots believe in principle, where they can support or oppose as per their own opinion. Nationalism can be aggressive at times and believes in supremacy of its nation (Ariely, 2011). And patriotism on the other hand, it is mostly passive by nature and it also believes in equality of the nations. Nationalism is based in rivalry due to wars or any other reason that is against their nation and patriotism is based on pure affection for the nation. A nationalist concludes that their nation is more desirable than every nation whereas, a patriot believes that their nation is the best and it can still develop and improve in different ways. Nationalist cannot tolerate and criticism and considers it as an insult whereas on the other hand patriotic person takes the criticism in a positive way and tries to learn something good and new from it (Mummendey, Klink, and Brown, 2010).

Differences between Nationalism and Patriotism

 Scientist like ‘Albert Einstein’ has stated “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”  Explaining this statement further he says nationalism is the belief that the nation should be sovereign.  People should not sacrifice culture, economic or political sovereignty to appease the community or the nation. Patriotism is the belief that the nation should feel happy and free to be the part of the particular member of the nation and it is not necessary to be political in nature. A state is the legal entity. A nation is the people that are governed in that legal entity; one can, for example, be an ethnic Magyar and still be a German national, as long as they see themselves as Germans and were either born or naturalized as Germans; the nation is the body of citizens (Milan, et al., 2013). Nationalism has its own limits that could end up in wars (Miscevic and Nenad, 2014). Nationalism makes an individual of that particular nation forget the basic humanistic values that develops hatred against the other nation, if someone says ill-mannered words against their nation. A nationalist should have a limit and humanitarian values to respect other nations as well and also, they must not speak any ill-mannered language against language if they cannot listen anything against their country people should not say against any other country as well (Clift and Woll, 2012).

Nationalism started to spread in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  There are two main forms of nationalism, civic and ethnic nationalism. Civic nationalism emphasises unity through political values and allegiances. It is open to all the races, ethnicities and fundamental values of the particular country and believes in liberty. Ethnic nationalism whereas is committed to ethnic unity. Ethnic nationalist means that same legacy, which includes common communication skills, race, belief or ethnic ancestry (Gat and Yaksobson, 2013). It also shares the theme of ethnicity example white nationalism. White nationalism is the kind of nationalism, which believes that white people are a race and they strive for development, and survival in the nation (Beirich and Hicks, 2009). White people try to dominate in the major white countries and maintain their political and economic status and mostly maintain the culture in the nation. Ethnic nationalism also manifest minority ethnic groups into majority ethnic groups for example Italianisation, the spread of Italian culture, people or language by assimilation (Smith, 2013). In 19^th century, nationalism was one of the reasons for consequential political and social division in history that caused world wars. On the other hand patriotism believes in the idea of love for the “native land”. Nationalism has its own limit hence famous quotation by ‘George Orwell’, states that “nationalism is the worst enemy of peace.” This explains that nationalism is an emotion for a particular nation. While patriotism is not about admiration for the nation, it shows the concepts that patriotism is about acceptance by nature. Nationalism can get out of limit then it can be aggressive and harmful for the nature (Prabhat, 2018).

Forms of Nationalism: Civic and Ethnic Nationalism

Globalization is defined differently for different people. Globalization is defined as a process of developing the nature of human interaction across worldwide that includes the economic, political, social, technological, and environment (Kheeshadeh, 2017). Globalization is referred to developing international relationships of legacy, different kinds of persons and economic activity worldwide. It is referred to economics, as globalization contributes in the economic growth in developing or developed countries by spreading of ideas, knowledge, and popular culture. It is also referred as rapid developing process of compound interactions among the people and individuals worldwide. By this process, human being becomes closer to one another because this social process compress time and space, shrinks distances, and makes the world seem closer or smaller to people (Raluca, 2010).  Globalization has its own advantages as it decreases cultural contact within the nation while increasing the possibility of international conflicts or conflicts in the nation. Globalization also include some more benefits like creating new global system, intensifying mutual interactions, the growth of intensity and extent of communications and economic development (Keri and Smith, 2013).

Globalization increases capital, for example in Africa, Weisbrout (2000) states that “the capita income grew by 34.4% in Africa from 1960 to 1980 it has since fallen by about 23%”. He also suggested that the administration of emolument had made worse as, after the globalizing forces influenced African countries. The effects of globalization is a dispute as it is difficult to differentiate between what kind of effect is actually harmful and what is the actual result of globalization. This is one of the negative aspects of globalization (Yankuzo, 2018).

Media also plays a wide role in spreading globalization. Media consists of group of, publishers, journalists and other members in the industry. Media and globalization are related to each other. In this world of increasing globalization, the media has the capacity to spread the information (Mirrlees, 2013). It also has a negative side though as the ideas of culture will be more dominant and hence this raises the phenomenon of “cultural imperialism”. Global media system is considered as cultural imperialism (Salwen, 2009).  Cultural imperialism takes place when a country dominates other through media like advertisements, films, television, internet, newspaper, and radio programs (Marwan and Kraidy, 2017). Example, a country like America dominates in the media world that made it hard to accomplish for other customs to manufacture and share their own customs. The proponent of American legacy proclaim about the worldwide commerciality of American media as American media promotes worldwide media and this develops good communication in the country and worldwide (Schiller and Herbert, 2018). Critics of American legacy say that cultural imperialism avert the progress of natives and has a bad impact on the youth of the nation (Bacevich,  2009).

Impact of Nationalism and Patriotism in Globalization

 Globalization has many positive aspects, as the media has helped globalization in spreading the culture worldwide. When cultural exchange takes place, this leads to cultural growth worldwide. Media has helped globalization in adapting of media content to popular culture worldwide. The role of media is important for the concept of globalization because without media, globalization cannot be spread and reach to the people. This is one of the positive aspects of globalization (Kaul, 2011).

 Patriotism also has its own limits in globalization. Example, Singapore this nation has been existed since 1965, when it was forced out of newly formed Republic of Malaysia. As a result, Malay consisted of dominant Chinese ethnic group to keep communism. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (1965-1990), pledged to a union with Malaysia (Gungwu, 2011). Hence, from 1965-1990 Singapore was entering on a process of globalizing, its economy, population and legacy is to make the country suitable for the needs of the rest of the world. Globalizing programmes has become more than just approachable policy options rather than values of the nation (Hsueh, 2011). The difficulties that the nation faced at its beginning of the years, which included a battle with its neighbour Indonesia, this created a rigid mind-set of existence. Globalizing programmes helped Singapore to attain political stability and economic growth but as a negative side to this, it also led to weakening of social bond for patriotism (Deng, Gopinathan, and Lee, 2013). Whereas, globalizing programmes such as mandatory use of English, adapting on economic growth through international trade and multinational corporations and stressing on worldwide recognition rather than a native recognition this all led to negative side of globalization but also helped in various issues. In the year 2000-2011, it was observed that patriotism is uncommon among Singaporeans, which became a major issue in the country as the government accepted the lack of interest in social and political issues among the youth, which was the most globalized population of Singapore. Singapore’s government has made globalization analytical means for economic growth as well as for cultural globalization, national recognition and patriotism (Asiabiz, 2018).

Conclusion:                   

As discussed above, about nationalism and patriotism, it is concluded that nationalism and patriotism is both different from each other. Patriotism means nation governing itself and maintaining sovereignty whereas patriotism means love for the homeland.  Also discussed above what they mean for particular country and also given examples concluding that everything should have limits. Excess of nationalism or patriotism or globalization is harmful for any nation.  In the above essay it is also discussed about how media has been helpful or not in the awareness of patriotism due to interconnection of worldwide community.  According to the essay it has been concluded that media has been helpful in spreading globalization as it has made world look smaller and due to which awareness of patriotism has weakened in worldwide.

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