The Illogicality of Nationalism

Here’s an interesting anomaly of human nature. People everywhere want to emigrate to the USA. Many will risk their lives to get there, in open boats, or over barbed wire, or trusting themselves to cartels and coyotes; to get that precious green card. And yet, when Donald Trump offers union to Greenland, or to Canada, the locals act insulted and truculent. They even threaten to shoot. This does not make sense.

By joining the USA, Canadians, for example, individual would have many more career opportunities. They could expect a higher standard of living. They would have more choices where to live. Apart from Quebec, they risk losing nothing of their culture—by any normal world standard, it is the same culture. They would sacrifice nothing of their freedoms or right to self-govern. America has the same democratic traditions. Indeed, they would probably have better protection for their rights, a more independent judiciary and a longer and stronger human rights tradition. Canada, after all, only got responsible government in the 1840s, and a formal Bill of Rights only in 1960. The courts’ interpretations of the current Charter of Rights and Freedoms has grown problematic. They—we-- would also have greater security against foreign threats from genuinely oppressive governments.

And yet Mark Carney is hurrying off to China, America’s chief adversary, to cut deals that seem not in Canada’s interest, in hopes of countering American influence. Or perhaps just to spite the USA.

This behaviour seems mad and self-destructive.

I think it shows the strength of the nationalist instinct, and how it works against our interests. People are herd animals, if they follow their instincts. But the gospel truth is that all men are brothers. Even Samaritans. Even Americans.

 Appealing to this idolatry of nationalism has let many a corrupt and oppressive government seize and stay in power. 

You might, of course, accuse Trump in turn of being a nationalist, in wanting to annex Canada or Greenland. But that is a separate argument, and an argument for others to consider.