For the Love of One's Nation

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For the Love of One's Nation

The country is painted red, white, and blue and the national anthem is being heard nation wide. Everywhere you look you see little American flags posted in peoples front gardens or big flags hanging in their windows. Many stores are closed, even supermarkets usually open 24 hours close for a while, and those that are open for a while have all baked goods with American flags on them. People line the streets for parades, in big or small towns alike, and everywhere you look people are dressed in red, white, and blue. It could be no other day than the 4th of July in the United States. The big day when people remember history and unite together to enjoy their country's independence. This display of the American flag, the sound of the national anthem, and the pride people feel as they watch the morning parade is nationalism.

To have the devotion to die for one's country, to hail to one's flag, to sing one's national anthem with pride, and to fear or hate others because they are not one of you are a few of the many characteristics of nationalism. Nationalism makes a person have love, pride, and an emotional union with the nation to which they belong. Being happy and loving one's nation can be a good thing as long as this pride is kept within reason and does not engulf a nations entire existence and lead to racism and the feeling of superiority towards others. A persons pride and loyalty for their nation-state has been a recent development, since previously a persons loyalty went to one's "crown, religion, city, or clan" (Weatherby, 39). A nation-state is a legal entity with people sharing a common identity, land, government, and independence, such as the former Soviet Union. Nationalism results from four types of bonds and is displayed through four types of symbols. However, even though nationalism can bring nations together it can also hurt the unity of the entire world by causing nations to measure other nations by their own value system which leads to inferiority and racism.

One bond of nationalism is common territory, which is a natural bond since people are located close to each other. When traveling to other countries or even other areas in your own nation a person would feel closer and sometimes more comfortable in the new place if they met someone who was also from where they lived.

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