One of the most important and powerful ism's of the last 200 years,
has been nationalism... Nationalism as we know it today, is part
of the outgrowth of the French Revolution... and do we have
any choice, or free will in regard to nationalism?
If I were to speak truths, that America is not the greatest country
on Earth, I would be branded, and in some parts of America,
literally branded, as a traitor, Un-American, communist, Liberal...
we cannot, under any circumstances, speak ill of America...
or we are branded....and where is our vaunted free speech then?
Where are our choices in the ism of nationalism? to my mind, anyway,
nationalism maybe one of the most dangerous ism we have today....
for is has no choices... ''America, America before/above all''
is not a platform for choices or free will...
for me, nationalism is just another ism we must overcome to become
human, fully human...for to have free will, to have a true choice,
we must have a choice of our values, be it ''American values'' or
values of our own choice...but in the name of nationalism, our
choice, our free will is ended by a truth that is unproven,
and wrong... that America is the Greatest country on earth...
and dissent is punishable, the only question becomes, how
severe punishment is deserved by those who don't outright claim
to ''love our country".... or as the really silly bumper sticker says,
''America, love it or leave it''
a rather binary choice to say the least.... what if, what if I want
to create, build a better country, one worth loving... but that isn't the choice,
I think the best is to come, but only if we have the courage to accept that
America isn't heaven on earth... we have flaws and some rather
serious flaws... if we fix those, change them into positives instead
of negatives, making the country better, that is a country worth staying
in, worth believing in...if we have no interest in becoming a better country,
for everyone, citizens as well as non-citizens, then why stay? there is no point...
if we are a country that allows and accepts people for who they are,
even if we don't agree, that is becoming a better country and one worth
staying in, one worth believing in....
if we reject people for being color, or loving another not approved by us,
if we allow people to dress and to be and to love as they see fit, not
as we see fit, that is a country worth living in, worth loving....
worth living for and worth dying for.... if we reject people based on
a moral premise, that can't even be justified, why should we live there?
why should we believe in that nationalism? if they can't even accept people
for who they are, not as we desire or demand them to be....based on
our moral principles, our god, our religion, not on their moral principles
and certainly not based on their god....or moral principles....
a country worth living in is a country that accepts everyone for who
they are, and not based on some individual standard that can't even
be justified...
so, in the end, we can reject nationalism..... as we must...
and so, what do we replace nationalism with? One problem at a time...
Kropotkin