Patriotism is the Beginning of Genocide, Xenophobia and Injustice

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Patriotism is a significant part of many countries around the world. To be patriotic means to have or express devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country. The source gives patriotism a very negative connotation and suggests that it is aggressive, fond of killing and selfish. It implies that every patriot believes his or her country is better than any other country. This perspective is quite accurate and is supported by many events in history. Patriotism causes many things like genocide, xenophobia and injustice. First of all, genocide has been an ongoing issue in the world for centuries. Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group. One example of this is the holocaust. The holocaust was the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime during the period 1933-1945. More than 6 million European Jews, and others were murdered at several concentration camps. This all started because a anti-Semite group called the Nazi’s came into power in Germany. There was a particular person who led this catastrophic event, Hitler who wanted to save Germany from both external and internal enemies. Hitler believed that only true Germans could live in Germany, he was patriotic to a fault. Another example is the event that occurred in December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China’s capital city of Nanking and murdered 300 000 people and raped over 20 000 women . There were also citywide burnings, stabbings, drowning, rapes, and thefts for about 6 weeks. This occurred because the Japanese believed they were a superior race and their country was much better than China. This is an example of chauvinism. Overall, patriotism has been proved to result... ... middle of paper ... ... agents gathered anyone of Italian descent. For the next two years, about 600,000 Italian Americans lived under strict curfew and some were even imprisoned. The Italians were judged just because they were not the same as other Americans. The Americans supported their countries actions because they were told that it was best for their country. Generally, aggressive patriotism leads to injustice and is pitiless as a grave as implied by the source. Patriotism shows great devotion for a country and vigorous support for one’s country. It has been an important part of several countries in the world. The source however implies that patriotism is an aggressive force that leads to killing and shows many forms of biased towards other countries. This point of view is supported by many things like genocide, xenophobia and injustice which are causes of extreme patriotism.

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