but terms need to be examined
Negative nationalism assumes that the world is a zero-sum game where our gains come at another nation's expense, and theirs come at our's. Positive nationalism assumes that when our people are better off they're more willing and better able to add to the world's well being.
History teaches that one of the two faces of nationalism almost always predominates. A society with a lot of positive nationalism is more likely to be tolerant and open toward the rest of the world because its people have learned the habits of good citizenship and social justice. Dictators and demagogues, on the other hand, flourish where social capital is in short supply. People who feel little responsibility toward one another will turn against minorities in their midst and outsiders across their borders, in return for promises of glory or comforting fictions of superiority.
Negative nationalists prey most directly on people who are losing ground economically and socially. The recent resurgence of negative nationalism in Austria, France, and Switzerland is especially evident among blue-collar manufacturing workers and young men who feel the economic ground shifting from under them. The ugly violence against ethnic Chinese in Indonesia during the currency crisis there was also rooted in economic fears. People whoe livelihoods are at risk find it reassuring to be given specific targets for their frustrations.
A country’s people have only a LIMITED level of control over it’s government
. When electing administrations, they often have to choose the lesser evil.
It is true that a country’s people are partly responsible for what is done by the government they elect,
but one must try to avoid phrases such as “
did ”.
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