Nationalism - the falsest of all false paths.

“ I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” - Thomas Paine,  The Rights of Man 

The Socialist Party is opposed to nationalism in all its forms. Instead of thinking in terms of nations – and hence in a necessarily “us and them” manner –  we would be better to embrace our global citizenship. From the “blue planet” view from outer space, we clearly are only an “us.” The poison that is extreme nationalism, often linked with overtones of racism, is indeed one of the major sources of much human discord, past and present, both locally and globally. Extreme nationalism’s tunnel-vision has also been a net negative force in world history. Nationalism encourages people to believe that their responsibilities towards their fellow man are restricted to their nation's borders. This is exacerbated by homilies which appear reasonable, but when thoughtfully considered, have a quite sinister message, such as "charity begins at home". Nationalism is a key means of obscuring class differences. As well dividing the working class internationally, it is also used within a nation state to turn working class people born in a specific nation against immigrants. By getting native-born workers to blame newcomers, the capitalist class weakens the resistance to their power. Nationalism makes xenophobes even of generally tolerant liberals. nationalism is used as a tool for controlling people. Nationalism creates xenophobes. It creates the idea that outsiders are different and of lesser importance.


Nationalism's function is to persuade people to be loyal to a state or to a government. Nationalism is the idea that makes people who live in a state think of themselves as citizens of that state. The function of British nationalism is to make people loyal to the British government. People who are loyal to a government do what the government tells them. Governments need nationalism to make people obey them. They use nationalism to make people think that they are not just obeying a particular group of men - the government. It tries to persuade them that they are doing something more important. This important thing is called the person's 'duty' to the nation. You must ask yourself, who is in charge of instilling national pride in a nation of people? It is, of course, the government. Consequently, the powerful tool of nationalism will be used to satisfy their agenda. The problem with nationalism is that it is used to manipulate the thoughts of the population. Nationalism was used as a tool by the government, to suppress rational thought, in order to meet a political agenda.



To win people's support the state uses all sorts of symbols and myths. These are called national symbols or national tradition. For instance, a state will have its own cloth design. This is called a national flag. Sometimes on such occasions, they will sing a special song which says how great and good their nation is. Whenever they hear this song people are supposed to stand up straight.


The reason that nationalism has become common since the start of capitalism is that the capitalist classes in different parts of the world wanted to protect their home market. To do this they needed to set up capitalist governments. These governments would then put up customs barriers that would protect them from foreign competition and pass various other laws to help the development of the industry. These governments would be made up of business men and other professional men such as lawyers. This is why the nationalist idea became necessary. People were to be taught that obedience to the government was their duty to the nation. By the use of fake history and symbolic rituals, the nation is made to seem some supernatural entity. You can just exchange the belief in a "God" for the belief in a "nation" . Nationalism is the biggest among new gods, the one who wears it shrouds humanity This is why from a socialist standpoint nationalism is - always - an illusion. There is no good and bad nationalism, it is as Daniel de Leon called it, the falsest of all false paths.

Nationalism is loyalty to real estate. To quote the comedian George Carlin: "I could never understand ethnic or national pride. Because to me, pride should be reserved for something you achieve or attain on your own, not something that happens by accident of birth. Being Irish isn't a skill, it's a fucking genetic accident. You wouldn't say "I'm proud to be 5"11". I'm proud to have a predisposition for colon cancer." So why would you be proud to be Irish, or proud to be Italian, or American or anything?"