On Nationalism

Nationalism is the result of the disintegration of smaller social units (clans, villages). We are altruistic where it serves our own interest, and initially in human civilization, it is small groups like rural villages or nomadic tribes that help us as individuals to survive. But when social and economic forces moved people to the cities, to the factories, to the armies that now required larger numbers of men and operations on a much larger scale to be effective (no longer a feudal lord and his band of knights), the cohesion with one's original small social group is then made to expand to that of the much larger social unit as people are more tied in to that unit for survival and as warlords use the language of nationalism to cement that social cohesion to achieve their military and political ends. For centuries, loyalty needed only to extend to family that shared genetic information and neighbors whose cooperation ensured survival. But the administrative and political necessities of that acompanied expansion of a leader's personal power expanded those bonds of loyalty to encompass the larger group that shared some ethnic, linguistic, and cultural characteristics, those similarities being useful tools in the molding of a new and larger powerbase. The printing press, standardization of spelling and dialect, increased literacy, a professional bureaucracy, and an economy of a much greater scope solidified that powerbase.

Nevertheless, nationalism is an impurity still found in most people's ethical repertoire. Perhaps an international economy, world-wide web, and possibly a world government can extend further bonds of loyalty to encompass all mankind and beyond.