The Story of Unity and Nationalism

For what it’s worth, I’m probably the reason my old high school doesn’t do the pledge. I refused to stand for it all throughout school, and I guess some administrators finally caught on that it was a stupid thing to do every morning. Yeah, I was an edgy kid.

There is nothing more dangerous than a good story. With it, any leader can find a horde of fervent followers behind them. Their unifying power is unparalleled — especially in the information age when anyone can carve a platform out from a Facebook account.

All it takes is an interesting tale, and anyone can manipulate everyone into believing they are alone, surrounded by enemies. The better storyteller a person is, the more control they have.

Just ask any authoritarian dictator. There are plenty to go around right now.

Rodrigo Duterte rose to power with tales of internal enemies, lurking within the homes of the lower classes who enjoyed rising to their own sorts of power through recreational drugs. Donald Trump spun stories about immigrants and other dangers pressing against US borders, stopping the country from being the best in the world. Jair Bolsonoro found his power by weaving myths about innate Brazilian greatness, inhibited by external and internal enemies that would be vanquished by his rule.

These myths are simple, and they all share similar thematic components. They usually feature a single hero, trapped within a nation under siege and who fights against all odds to serve a greater good: the nation. At the end of the myth, the hero raises their nation’s flag above all else.

Flying a flag doesn’t mean much, anyway. They’re the geopolitical equivalent to hanging a poster in your dorm room. They need to be taken down at the end of the semester.

That hero is usually the storyteller or the politician, but they are also the people of a nation. They are allegories that anyone can see themselves in, and their simplicity is their power.

Nationalism Is the Same, No Matter the Nation

National myths are the same, no matter the country. And so, nationalism is counter-intuitively the single greatest tool to erase borders unite the world. It does not matter whose flag flies at the end of a nationalist myth, but rather that a flag is raised at all. Audiences do not see themselves in the flag at the end; they see themselves in the person raising it.

Nationalism’s allure does not originate from the reverence of any single country, but rather the carnage and drama that builds up to the final scene. Donald Trump’s stories about an endangered U.S. only resonate because people believe that they are not ever. A vote for him is a step towards their climax, and after the election, his stories will lose their power. In essence, nationalist myths originate from political isolation. People are desperate to relate to their country, but how could anyone relate to a flag they’re isolated from?

When people can’t participate in their country’s politics, they end up feeling isolated. They crave something familiar that they can share with others — above all, the isolated crave something to believe in.

And above all, nationalist countries are nations without values. They lack anything to believe in at all.

Digital Nationalism: The Internet’s Role in Dividing People

The origin of nationalism is isolation; it tells simple stories that anyone can see themselves in, and everyone can believe in. It is the opiate of the desperate, who long for nothing more than to not feel alone. And when nationalism is understood through the lens of isolation, the global wave of nationalist politics can be rationalized. The stories that they tell concern more than the narcissism of details that separates countries.

Instead, contemporary nationalism is a direct result of the Internet’s sheer power to both bring people together, and to divide them. The internet is a technology with a unique power to conceal the existence of other people with a veil of code and data, making communities only as accessible as a person is digitally fluent. For the digitally illiterate, the internet has robbed them of the idea that they are not alone since they can’t participate in their communities to the same extent they used to.

Nationalism fills the gulf that the internet tore open between people by both allowing them to use contemporary technology to further their professional lives, while also enabling them to feel at home within their own countries. Nationalism allows people to believe they aren’t alone, no matter their actions and despite evidence of the contrary.

Cyber-nationalism is definitely something that warrants more thought. If the internet is inherently international, where are nationalist attitudes truly directed towards?

That is the power of nationalism: to delude people’s perceptions of reality (this guy is very, very deluded. Don’t drink the nationalist Kool-Aid, kids) to allow them to believe that they aren’t alone in it, all by using nothing more than half-baked stories.

The danger of nationalist stories isn’t the carnage and violence embedded within them; those are just expressions of the storyteller’s emotions. Behind every enemy in nationalist myths are embodiments of isolation. The immigrant gangs supposedly threatening America are just the shadows of isolation felt by the nation. They represent the darkness of loneliness itself. To express these feelings would be healthy in any other context; it could even be considered art.

Nationalism: When Stories Aren’t Art

The danger of nationalism lies in the flags that are raised at the conclusions of the myths that support it. Any leader, or nation, that would proclaim itself to be the cure to isolation can only intend malice. The flags at the end of any nationalist story are not true solutions. Instead, they only perpetuate isolation as people fail to see themselves with another person in these tales.

Nationalist narratives leave people with only themselves and a flag, useless but to keep away the cold grips of death.

The danger of nationalist tales does not lie in the stories themselves, but rather in the nations that use them. The stories themselves can be a great, global unifying force but for the ego of nations.

Storytellers, and media representatives specifically, can replace the flags hoisted at the end with anything else to create powerful tales that bring people together. Instead of a flag waving at the end of a national struggle, the protagonist should instead bond with another person. They should end up finding a place in a community. Only then can their writers imbue meaning into the carnage and drama that led up to the climax.

Stories about overcoming violent gangs, which Trump’s rhetoric is centered around, aren’t inherently dangerous. In fact, they historically resonate throughout most of American society. What western movie doesn’t feature some gang? Contemporary narratives centered around overcoming violent gangs and ‘others’ reflect a national sentiment concerned with its own loneliness.

Only a year and a half left, guys. We’re almost through it. If we act like good little citizens, we may even get healthcare within a decade!

Nationalist tales distort the meaning of national identity to actively preclude one’s own ability to relate to their country, since people only relate to their country as much as they relate to its values. Countries taken by nationalist attitudes value only themselves.

So, these stories should not end on a waving flag. There should only be the protagonist, who reflects on their journey towards overcoming whatever difficulty they were presented with, and they should grow from it. The flag at the end of any nationalist story is a barrier to personal growth, and to the growth of a nation.

The best nationalist stories are ones in which no flag rises at the end. There are two other kinds of potential endings. Either, a state has grown beyond its own nationalist attitudes and the stories told by its leaders relate to its people by reflecting the values a nation prides itself on. Instead of a flag, these stories may end on a community beginning to rebuild, or on the protagonist finding love. The best nationalist stories end on a scene that reflects the nation’s values, instead of itself.

On the other hand, no flag may fly at the end of a nationalist tale because nobody is left to lift it. A nationalist state which fails to evolve beyond its narcissism fails as a nation. It exists in ruin, enriching none of its citizenry’s lives and perpetuating only violence, progressing towards destruction.

For some, such as those who believe borders are something to be erased rather than maintained, that may be the best story of all. And that is the ultimate danger and power of nationalist stories: to unite the world under no flag at all — the banner of the dead.