Hindsite wrote:But why should there be any argument about making America great again, greater than ever before?
Shouldn't all Americans want that?
No, some see nationalism as an abhorrent delusion. Noxious nationalism is very common in the world though. I'm proud of the place where I am from, but this has nothing to do with the commonplace tribalism variety of nationalism, and I don't consider myself a nationalist by any measure (nor a globalist, or any such ridiculous thing. Just a dude.)
As far as noxious nationalism goes, the virulent sort is less common in the US than it is in Japan, where I lived for 7 years. I am not talking about being proud of Japanese tea ceremony, or Japanese cuisine, or Japanese traditional dress. It's something visceral, that you can simply feel.
There is so much stuff I hear bandied about these days that is completely inappropriate to be crammed down everybody's throat. Some of it is in the nationalistic realm. There are standards of decency that are more or less universal, as influenced by our tradition. We rate films PG13 and above that don't adhere to this, and don't allow kids to deviate too much from it in school. But now decency is becoming absent, and we are all worse for it.
The above is a general indictment, but in the popular discourse, discussion of nationalism sometimes also is tainted by such indecency of rhetoric. Such talk can influence thoughts, and actions.
Why anarchy? For me, the above somewhat relates to some of the reasoning I see in it. Nation-states are violent, coercive, tyrannical conglomerations. They have a feeling of permanence in our lives, but in the grander scheme, they are more likely just fleeting. Our whole international social organization is based on some treaty arrangements, drawn up on somewhat arbitrary terms, as the basis of mass projects of social engineering. This was initially done at the Treaty of Westphalia, in 1648. At least according to conventional international relations theory, that's from whence the nation-state became.
Most of us are as minnows in a tide pool. It's as a rule naive to think one can affect the direction of the current--except in the most extraordinary of cases--but the pursuit of boundless (i.e. critical) thought is still a worthwhile endeavor; if for no other reason than to pass the time.
- By annatar1914