Positive and negative effects of nationalism

How often do we hear a citizen of a country saying “I’m proud of my country.”? “Ours is the greatest nation there ever will be”. Such sentences clearly depict that the person is a true nationalist. Nationalism is nothing but s feeling of pride and confidence of a person for their respective country. It is always good to know that people of a country love their nation and are very positive towards contributing in its success and prosperity.

A nationalist can be an individual who loves and contributes towards to betterment of his country. However, the people in different political parties and organizations can also be known as a nationalist. Someone who is proud of their country and never steps back in bringing their country up.

Apart from this, nationalism of this type can have two aspects. These can be positive as well as negative. Positive nationalism can surely benefit a country and its people in a number of ways. But negative nationalism or negative nationalists can easily cause a havoc on their country, as well as on world peace.

The positive and negative effects of nationalism have been described as follows.

Positive effects of Nationalism

• It helps in the overall well-being of the country.

We often hear about various cleanliness drives or charity events that are organized in the countries. Some people come forward for organizing such programs so that they can simply expand and improve the infrastructure of their country. Such people are nationalists who love their country and strive to make it a better place. True nationalism in such a case has a very positive effect by adding to the country’s infrastructure. They care for what is theirs. They own it and they want to make it better.

• It works as a great source of inspiration

Positive nationalism can be a great source of inspiration for the people of a country. People can be highly motivated through a sense of nationalism to achieve their respective goals and meet all the aspirations. For example, we all have heard of The American Dream. It is the perfect example of nationalism. With a wish to be independent, people are inspired and motivated driven by the feelings of nationalism.

• Nationalism becomes a country’s strength

When the citizens of the country depict nationalism, it directly strengthens the country and its economy to make it capable of moving further. People uniting as a result of nationalism and pride adds up to the streaming community. When their position is strengthened, it can negotiate globally and with greater power and confidence.

Negative effects of Nationalism

• It can lead to a sense of indifference.

Nationalist people makes a country independent as compared to the rest of the world. they tend to believe that they are superior than any of the countries out there. A sense of nationalism bestowed in this case among people can be a little misleading. This kind of nationalism separates such a nation from the world. Things like forming national treaties can pose a great difficulty. The import and export market can begin to fall down. All this can be as a result of nationalism which is only trying to focus upon itself first. This creates a sense of division and isolation for such a country.

• It can create in-differences among individuals, rather than in communities.

Although nationalism is supposed to work on a community level if it is supposed to have positive effects on a country. However, a sense of nationalism, when taken in a negative way, can create differences among the common people. This is when it occurs at an individual level rather than the community level. People start building differences based on religion, wealth, caste etc, forming their own kind of labels. This is never good for a country since it only divides its people in the name of nationalism, hence weakening the pillars of a country’s unity.

• In-differences between nations can lead to wars.

It often happens that views and ideals tends to clash. This may simply be due to differences in opinions of the two. However, when such in-differences occur, the nationalism gets in between and the other one looks like everything wrong. They try to stand intact as an effort to protect their ideals and the same is being done by the counter country. These kinds of clashes can lead to the commencement of war between such country.

Nationalism can have a positive effect on the people if it is practiced in a controlled way. However, too much obsession will only bring out drastic results.

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