Nationalism Plays In Today's Global Village example essay topic

... of that global village have access to the technologies that are so difficult to separate from it. NATIONALISM In order to understand the role that nationalism plays in today's global village it is important to define nationalism and the terms used in conjunction with it. Nationalism has been difficult to define. Two different forms of nationalism have been identified. One being civic nationalism and the other being ethnic nationalism. In general, nationalism is a combination of nationality and patriotism.

This makes it important to understand both nationality and patriotism. It is also important when contrasting nationalism to the global village to note the strong emotional level present in nationalism. There are two commonly accepted extremes in nationalism. Civic nationalism is when a nation is a voluntary association of individuals.

In other words, a state is formed to bind a nation together. Canada or the United States of America are both good examples of nations that chose to create a state to bind them together. The other form of nationalism is ethnic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism is when a nation is determined by objective features of it's social life (language, culture, and tradition), the nation precedes the state, you cannot choose to be a part of the nation but are raised in it.

The Indian nations of North America personify ethnic nationalism. Both definitions of nationalism do describe certain instances of nationalism. The reason for two different definitions is that there are different sources of nationalistic pride. Nationalism grew in some nations when they came together to fight colonization. Several nations in Africa were created to oppose the colonization of their land by British and German imperialists. This was an example of ethnic nationalism.

These people shared a common culture and did not want lose it by way of assimilation into an imperial empire. We see this sort of reaction today towards globalization and the global village. Many nations are afraid of being assimilated by the overwhelming global culture and are expressing nationalistic cries to keep this from happening. In contrast to nationalism resulting from trying to prevent colonization, there were those countries that united to form empires.

The strength of these empires was an immense benefit for all its members. There was a strong sense of pride felt for the empire hence the presence of nationalism. The United Kingdom formed in this way. This sort of Nationalism seems to be applicable at a global level.

Many nations are choosing to be a part of the global village because they can see the vast economic, educational, and cultural opportunities that are present. These two extremes of nationalism can be combined to provide an all-encompassing definition. Nationalism is a condition of mind among members of a nationality in which loyalty to the ideal, or to the fact of one's national state, is superior to all other loyalties and of which pride in ones nationality and belief in its intrinsic excellence are integral parts. This definition does a good job of emphasizing the presence of ethnocentricity and racism in nationalism.

The previous definition refers to pride in nationality. Nationality consists of three distinguishing marks: language, historic tradition, and perception of being a distinct cultural society. A nationality must have a shared language. Language is a tool for passing along culture and history. Without language a nationality would not exist.

The same can be said for historic traditions. Traditions are developed over years and years of developing to ones environment. Traditions serve to define who a nationality is, what their relationship with the environment is, and how they will handle change in the future. The most important of the distinguishing marks is the perception of being a distinct cultural society. A nationality may not be a distinct cultural society but as long as they believe they are then they will begin to grow and develop into a distinct society. This is evident in the French Canadian culture.

The longer everyone in Canada thinks of the French as being different from the rest of Canada the more likely they are to evolve that way. Nationalism is the combination of nationality and patriotism. Nationality has been around for a long, long time and so has patriotism. Since the beginning of time human loyalties and patriotism have been directed to many different things. One of the first objects of patriotism was an individual home. This may have been land used for subsistence purposes or it may have extended to neighbors or even hometowns or tribes.

Whatever the case, all people associated themselves with a certain place or certain people. This being a fact of human nature serves as basis for nationalism. At first patriotism and loyalty were displayed on a small scale. However, as individual knowledge of the world grew and relative distances around the world were reduced patriotism was applied on larger scales to nationality. Nationalism grows out of fear of what is different. Other nationalities are different so they must be inferior.

Racism and prejudice are the underlying themes of nationalism. On top of these racist judgement's a heap of emotion is added. With this as the situation nationalism often leads to bitter disputes between nations. In the past academics had a difficult time studying the efficiency of nationalism in international politics. To condemn nationalism would have meant fear of condemnation. Eventually, the nations began to realize that to achieve optimal economic performance and ultimately the highest standard of living for themselves it was necessary to look beyond the narrow nationalistic views and work together in international partnerships.

CONCLUSION At the beginning of the 20th century it was noted that 'hardly a cloud appears nowadays on the horizon of domestic politics, social action, and internationals affairs, which is without a lining of nationalism. ' Today the same quote could be used to speak of globalization and the global village. It appears that because of the better communication, travel, and global media the global village is continually growing. As this new culture grows and evolves the members of that culture will begin to apply their patriotism not to nationalism but rather to globalize. What little rise that there is in nationalism is only a last ditch effort to gain a greater place within the new order or a resistance to change. Resistance to change is always overcome by better education.

The positive effects of moving forward by embracing a global culture far outweigh the negative effects. Nationalism will be limited to the history books and globalism will reign strong.

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NATIONALISMS ROLE IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE APRIL 8, 1999 Geography 215 For: Dr.