O Night, Thou Was My Guide

Blind nationalism throughout history has long been considered a problem that plagues a people. Crowd psychology sets in and the mass hoards salute and chant as one without really knowing why they do so. All they know is their enthusiasm, their single national spirit, their leader, their flag, but in most cases the broad masses do not know where that flag will take them, or what it truly stands for. Images of glory are put before them, brainwashing them and blinding their eyes with the poison of propaganda and the subtle suggestions of the everyday, such as the music they hear, the advertisements on the billboards, and they don't realize that by falling in with this chanting crowd that their ability to think freely is being stripped from them, piece after piece after piece.

There are those that would call me a political radical or perhaps anti-American altogether, and the more paranoid would call me a Communist or terrorist bent on destroying America. This is not so. The phenomenon of blind nationalism is something that cannot be prevented, save in a perfect society, and it is beginning to happen in America right now. The cases may not be as severe or appalling as the sight of tens of thousands of German youth parading down a street to honor a dictator that has killed many of his own people for not being perfect Germans, yet in any case, or classification, it is blind nationalism. This radical form of nationalism is not necessarily promoted by the government of a nation, there are nationalistic radicals in everywhere. The crowd phenomenon is also somewhat rare and only happens in the most extreme cases, and only when extreme nationalistic values are promoted by the government, whether subtly or openly.

Blind nationalism is a tool of paranoia as well. Anything that the government points at and calls "terrorist", "Communist", or, for a historical case, "Jewish", is feared and hated, hissed at and clawed at by the proverbial demons of society. It is cast out, or sometimes kept as an example in prisons. This leads to the darkening of nations, where police hide in the alleyways, where children call the police on their own parents for anti-nationalistic ideals, where the youth are swept away by the ideas of fellowship and acceptance of others, not knowing that they are fast becoming tools for a society, tools for the government that wants to rest with the assurance that the defiant sentiment will be suppressed by the nation's own children.

It is my hope, and the hope of many others, that through better education through historical lessons will lead to this phenomenon never becoming prominent in America. The imperialism used by America in the present day is a force that drives for a general, world perspective good by overthrowing murderous dictators and instead of enslaving or persecuting the people they conquer, unlike empires of old, they take the time and resources to rebuild and better the place, leaving most nations America conquers better than they found it.

In the case of Germany especially, however, the disease of blind nationalism running rampant only leads to problems, such as war, genocide, and then the suffering of the people that followed their leader with blindfolds on. Though the case of National Socialism was not exclusive to Germany. The plague spread quickly. National Socialism was found popular in Denmark, Norway, France, The Netherlands, Hungary, and many other nations. Leaders such as Quisling of Norway, Mussert of the Netherlands and Szálasi of Hungary used the same tactics, though not as successful as Hitler, to poison the minds of their people and rally them to fight for their country at any cost, to consider their nation the greatest priority of all.

All authority should be questioned. In those cases, if the people had taken the time to stop chanting, stop saluting and think, they would oppose their nation. To know the behind-the-scenes politics, to know what their flag really to stood for, would appall them. If questions are not asked, which is how the ruling government would prefer things, then what can be done about it when your nation has made a crucial mistake that will forever stain the pages of the history books?

American Imperialism is a force for good in many cases, but the main concern I am dealing with is not how it affects the people abroad, but how does it affect the Americans themselves?

When the war in Iraq started, people rallied both in support of and out of contempt for the new war. But the majority of the people that rally in favor of Bush and his doings in Iraq are surprisingly ignorant of the true situation. It is quite puzzling how a person that does not own a passport, cannot speak Arabic, has never read the Qa'ran, and perhaps cannot even point the country they are fighting out on a map can say, "Well, we gotta get 'em"!

I am not saying that is the full American population that is like that. There are many, including myself, that don't necessarily agree fully with the war in Iraq but the ideals behind it and the reasons for doing it are well-founded in some ways. The oppressive dictator Saddam Hussein needed to be overthrown. A man that can kill his own people without remorse, in my belief, does not deserve the full authority over a nation. He also instituted blind nationalism, but through a different tactic than mere propaganda. The Iraqi people are dearly devoted to their chief religion, and Hussein claimed to have support from their god, who the people dare not defy. He also used fear. Those who did dare to defy him were tortured and slaughtered, buried in mass graves and many still are hidden. On the Iraq soccer team, if a player missed a goal, that would be his last game, ever. When Saddam took power, political opponents were murdered, and when their families asked where their loves ones were, they would be sent the sliced-up remains.

And still it is this blind nationalism that he installed that drives resistance on in Iraq, the reason coalition troops are still dying almost every day. Comparatively, the same sense of love for one's nation was what drove German youths to strap bazookas to bicycles and ride in the streets to face allied tanks. It is the wiser ones that greet the coalition troops openly and welcome them to better their nation. The war and reconstruction in Iraq will cost many lives and the financial cost is also hard to tell, but the figures in any field will be high, yet in twenty or fifty years down the road, this may all be worth it.

What the people know now as patriotism and simple pride may someday turn sour if Americans are not careful about following a banner waving in the breeze and being unaware of what it means. Americans must continue to exercise their freedoms, to protest when they disagree, to vote and express their wants and needs. Americans must continue to question the authority set upon them, to continually ask 'why', to research their own history and the history of Empires that fell because of the disease of blind patriotism. The freedoms Americans have are the freedoms that Americans must continue to exercise and to love, because if they become sheep, someday, those freedoms will be lost, and the nation will never see it coming. All they will see are stars, stripes, and the smoke of flying bombs across the sky.