Nationalism and/or patriotism?

[Menydh]

In my opinion Nationalim and Patriotism are two different concepts which are not necessarily opposed to each other, but which share a special relation. Clearly it depends upon the feeling of Patriotism being subject to idea of Nationalism, for this to be true.

One cannot say, from a Nationalist perspective, that Patriotism is either good or bad in absolute terms. It depends on what we are defining with the word patriotism.

There are states and there are nations. A state is nothing more than a political and administrative concept, for a nation. But a state is also a political and administrative concept for people who do not belong to a nation, or who belong to different nations. It is important to emphasize these differences because they are the matter of the differences that divide state patriotism, from nation patriotism. They are opposed yet we call them both patriotism.

As a Nationalist, when I think of Patria I think of the soil to which I belong, to which my forefathers have belonged since times of ancient, and where so much of my same blood has been spilled by others of my nation who came before me to ensure a home for us. This has developed in a spiritual bond between the people and the soil, natio et patria. The blood and the soil.

Much as Anthropology or Genetics may tell about the origins of such or such other type related to my nation as originating from one place or another, I still believe that it is here, in the land that I'm stepping upon, that are our origins. Everything originated here, and from here. Therefore Patria is strongly spiritual: Antiqua Mater, the ancient mother.

And what is more, it is more real of what Anthropology or Genetics may have to tell about origins, since it was in this soil that it took place the ethnogenesis that gave birth to my people.

I understand that this spiritual relation is not felt the same for nations with a more nomadic substratum, much as they may like to boast about maxims of blood and soil.


State patriotism, though sharing the name, is a much different concept, even opposed. It lacks of that spiritual bond and it is no wonder that, like someone else has said, it manifests itself in the form of Jingoism.