April 9, 2004 6:03 AM

History is more than just one damn thing after another....

What Makes An American

To define precisely what nationalism means to each individual would fill a volume. A Frenchman once said that nationalism is a certain number of illusions shared by a group of men and women concerning their origin, combined with a common hatred for any other group of men and women sharing another set of illusions. To most people, however, it is something much more noble than that because it represents an extension of the natural love of man for the country where he was born. It implies devotion, duties, and sacrifices under the general assumption that there is some sort of sacred link between each man and a definite spot on the planet.

- Raoul de Roussy de Sales

I have always hated most aspects of nationalism. The idea that one place is inherently superior simply because one happens to inhabit that particular place is a concept I find abhorrent and yet fascinating. Millions have died over the course of recorded history for this notion, and the power of place is perhaps one of the strongest psychological concepts known to mankind.

Having lived in parts of the world where nationalism was used as an excuse for oppression and murder, I've developed my own particular revulsion to the corrupting power of this belief. The idea that my government, my people, my God, or my belief system are so superior to yours as to render yours inferior to the point of subjugation should be considered an abomination.

Nonetheless, nationalism is a large part of the reason that we as Americans are who we are. Our raison d'etre stems from the idea of rebellion and the idea that we could indeed create a better and more equitable place. De Sales thought that American nationalism has profound historical and psychological reasons:

Most Americans believe today the following facts concerning their nation: (1) that this continent was peopled by men who rebelled against the tyrannies of Europe; (2) that these men dedicated themselves, from the very beginning, to the purposeful establishment of a kind of freedom that should endure forever; (3) that they succeeded, by a "revolution" in breaking away forever from the oppressive domination and the cupidity of European imperialisms; (4) that in establishing a democratic government they determined forever the course of political perfection, and that whoever followed another course was on the road to damnation; (5) that although European nations were becoming progressively harmless in relation to the increasing power and resources of the ever-growing America, they remained a potential danger to the integrity of this great nation on account of their deplorable habit of wandering away from the true path of civilization, which is democracy, the pursuit of material comfort and more happiness for everybody on this earth as soon as possible.

The "true path of civilization, which is democracy"? This sounds like something out of a George W. Bush campaign commercial, doesn't it? This particularly American attitude that we have the key to the problems that plague the "uncivilized" world has been the hallmark of the American ethos since the days of the Founding Fathers. We have taken it upon ourselves to "support" and "defend" freedom the world over, because that is what Americans do.

You will hear this message trumpeted endlessly by Bush campaign commercials over the next few months. It's hardly original, though- because de Sales wrote "What Makes An American" in 1939.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on April 9, 2004 6:03 AM.

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