Bi0Hazard (PRO)The premise I will be defending is: "Nationalism has a damaging impact on society"
Definitions
Nationalism- Ideology focused on achieving and maintaining nation sovereignty among a group.
nation- a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.
damaging- having a detrimental effect on someone or something.
impact- have a strong effect on someone or something.
society- the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community.
Now keep in mind that I am arguing that nationalism has a damaging impact, not that nationalism does more harm than good overall. So, it is not enough for my opponent to demonstrate that nationalism produces benefits to society. They really have to demonstrate that there isn't really any damage done to society from nationalism. This can be best done by my opponent focusing specifically on my points, since the supposed damaging effects are being supplied by me.
The Negative Impact of Nationalism
There is a problem with determining the "negative impact" of nationalism on society. This problem has to do with the subjective and relative nature of the relationship with human and society. People may not necessarily agree on what constitutes a great and harmful society. Despite this, I am sure my opponent and I could agree on what a negative impact can be. I will just rely on my own assumptions and see how my opponent may differ.
Nationalism forms a competitiveness to society that harms others
With nationalism comes patriotism. Patriotism is the loyalty to ones country and willingness to submit to it. This inevitably forms a competitive nature for humans with different societies. As we know from history, social institutions in a society may change by contact with other civilizations. Nationalism as an ideology is opposed to this and conflict can exist between different civilizations. This unity creates a division by nation. Inevitably, this creates an "us vs them" attitude with people.
"It encourages the kind of “us” vs. “them” attitude that drives sports fandom, making people irrationally committed to one team. When the team wins, they feel victorious (even though they just watched), and they feel pleasure in others’ defeat. As George Orwell put it: “A nationalist is one who thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige … his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations.”" (1)
When team loyalty results in pleasure for death in wars and needless conflict, there is a harm inflicted by nationalism. This fight for the team is giving a sense of pride and loyalty at the expense of other peoples lives. I translate this as a harm by assuming the death of any human being as harmful. This coming from the assumption of human rights and in this case, the right to life. Since nationalism results in pride from defeat and war, and human life is the central pillar of society (and the concept of human rights), nationalism therefore has a negative impact on human society. Nationalism puts the nation over human life.
Nationalism is about dominance at the expense of others. Nationalism is inherently selfish since it is centered on honoring one's nation over mutual benefit, respect, and diplomacy with other civilizations.
Nationalism promotes superiority and more power
People will inevitably value the values of the nation over all others. This creates the illusion of superiority, which justifies the need to spread their national interests with coercion. Nationalism is inherently selfish since it focuses on a specific group. This is harmful to society since it focuses on power and exploitation as the primary importance at the expense of all others.
There are harms from nationalism that are worth considering. If you respect the individual and their rights, nationalism is counterproductive and should therefore be opposed.
Thanks for reading
Sources:
(1) https://psmag.com/why-nationalism-is-so-dangerous-bbc54cd3946e#.gsf5yheq6
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2017-01-14 19:22:08
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2017-02-12 12:31:01
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Judge: Pasta Debates
@cooldudebro
Maybe we can keep this going forever. Posted 2017-02-02 18:38:06