Nationalism has been the most important 20th Century political phenomenon. It has given us a United Nations that counts 191 countries within its hallowed halls (UN), and led to two world wars. Nationalism, in and of itself, is a relatively benign phenomenonùwhat could be wrong about loving your country, after all? Unfortunately, nationalism has also been used as a tool by ambitious statesmen to bend their fellow citizens to their will.
Nationalism at heart disenfranchises the citizen. This is the direct result of the fact that Nations assign ôto the state the task of guiding the citizens and of holding them in tutelageàrestricting the individualÆs freedom to actö (Von Mises, 54). In elevating the nation above the individual, nationalist philosophies place precedence on the collective union of a country based on certain principles that are deemed unique to that country. These principles are slippery things, however, and can be easily abused.
During Adolf HitlerÆs rise to power, he stoked the fires of nationalism within the German public. However, HitlerÆs conception of Germany was not necessarily what Germany really was: ôBut who is a genuine German? Whose thoughts and feelings are genuinely German and whose are not?ö (Von Mises, 148). HitlerÆs conception of Germanism was at heart a tool he used to subjugate the country to his will. It was not based on the inherent principles of what it meant to be German: ôThe criterion of Germanism is found not in a likeness to this
standard but in the German tongue. Breaking up the German-speaking group according to racial characteristics would result in eliminating at least 80 per cent of the German people from the ranks of the Germansö (Von Mises, 98). Thus we see that HitlerÆs ambition led him to use German nationalism as a way to disenfranchise 80% of Germans.
Nationalism continues to present problems in modern day society. It has been used by ambiti...