81–90 of 224 posts
Very Orwellian definition of nationalism, I must say. I always considered nationalism as the antithesis of imperialism. A nation should be ruled from their own land and by their own people. Not by foreigners from a far far away land. Almost makes you think Orwell was some kind of an imperialist (a reformist, but still) who tried to vilify nationalism in order to keep the British empire together. Good think that faile…
> In the same way, there is a habit of mind which is now so widespread that it affects our thinking on nearly every subject, but which has not yet been given a name. As the nearest existing equivalent I have chosen the word ‘nationalism’, but it will be seen in a moment that I am not using it in quite the ordinary sense, if only because the emotion I am speaking about does not always attach itself to what is called a…
But note, he distinguishes between nationalism and patriotism, and even blames the decline of patriotism for the rise of nationalism. It’s quite a subtle essay. He was also ahead of his time in knowing about – or rather, being aware of – both things like the concentration camps, and (to my surprise) the Bengal famine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Using the article's definitions of patriotism and nationalism, I struggle to see who these supposed altruistic patriots are. Certainly not in the military, which is almost solely focused on obtaining more power and prestige for itself and the nation. While there may be some "patriots" in government or policing, it's hard to say that's the dominant ideology. And businesses obsession with money far outweighs any patrio…
You might have the good fortune to be born in a country in a stable region or with good neighbours. When life expectancy is not great in the initial active duty years (no foreign deployment, within border, defensive) I think it’s definitely not about power/prestige. It would be extremely ungrateful to state otherwise.
Someplace like Cyprus maybe? But it's hard to view any forced conscription as patriotic.
There are some African countries where maybe there's a patriotic element, but they often seem to have either a strong other ideology or be very corrupt.
I'll fully admit my knowledge may be lacking, so feel free to tell me what country you think is full of altruistic patriots.
Starship Troopers (1997) is an interesting movie that is basically a “war propaganda” movie seen from the viewpoint of a fascistic government. The whole point of the movie is to make the enemy seem like “the other” , and in this case these are actual alien bugs in the movie. All of the human characters in the movie are beautiful and everything on “our” side as we view it is shiny and “the good side” Paul Verhoeven al…
The book (one of my favourites) is a little diffrent. There the perspective is that of the mobile infantist. The classic hero arc but in a fashist world. Like in the movie, there is no enlightenment or revolution though, just the story of a regular directionless Joe who finds his true self and a purpose in life in the Mobile Infantry. The movie is brilliant in a diffrent way. It's basically satire on all levels. Paul…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people I've talked to who watched Starship Troopers didn't think it was satire. To be fair, the enemy is literally not human which does make it harder to pick up on.
I remember watching it as a teenager back in 1997. I was the only one laughing in the cinema, it was just hilarious. It immediately dawned on me after though: why was no one else laughing, really? In Austria of all places. Hadn’t anyone else paid attention during history classes - at all? Continuously chilling yet I’ve never been really surprised by the creeping normalcy of fascist thought since the 90s - in part bec…
The original Lego Movie (2014) has a wonderful, cheerful, catchy, and quite literally and deliberately fascist theme song ( Everything is Awesome ). You could say the entire (surprisingly good) film is an explanation of why it’s not as good a thing as it seems to be. (Yes, that’s all kinds of ironic for what is at the same time essentially a feature-length commercial.)
The world needs to be rid of Nationalism sooner rather than later. The narrative is changing slowly but surely. Our ability to use the internet, aside from obvious propaganda, has made the world smaller yet more interconnected than ever.
I know many of us have to go to HR training now and learn about the wonders of diversity, but there's a lot to be said (in nature and history) from shared values and culture.
Starship Troopers (1997) is an interesting movie that is basically a “war propaganda” movie seen from the viewpoint of a fascistic government. The whole point of the movie is to make the enemy seem like “the other” , and in this case these are actual alien bugs in the movie. All of the human characters in the movie are beautiful and everything on “our” side as we view it is shiny and “the good side” Paul Verhoeven al…
Many people are so used to nationalist propaganda that they don't see it's a parody. Pretty scary.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just got finished watching The Great Hack* on Netflix. Demonizing "the other side", exactly as you've said, causes the polarisation that prevents even the consideration of compromise, resulting in political unproductivity that in turn erodes trust and forces us simple humans back into the basic pigeon holes that remain as the only effective politics, primarily: fear. The rational centre, however, is unprofitable, and…
OMG, that Trinidad and Tobago part is so eye opening, even for middle aged cynic who thought he saw it all.
Insightful and relevant as ever, Orwell is always worth reading (and rereading). Sometimes I feel that his fictional works have unjustly overshadowed his enormous production of essays, so it's good to see these pop up on the front page once in a while. Also for those who might be mislead by the title, Orwell is discussing something much broader here: > But here I must repeat what I said above, that I am only using th…
I'm not sure i prefer this instead of a raw analysis of culture & society without the fictional elements, but at the same time I personally think having such fictional elements often anchor a work better throughout time(though a downside to this might be that future artistic adaptations might "rewrite" some original thoughts).Even more interestingly: raw, almost technical analyses often get forgotten and dismissed by people even if they contain 'predictions' that turned out to be true, coming back to the first point that the masses understandably aren't interested in them.It's like we don't care about truth/future if it doesn't make us feel good.