Nationalism and Other "ism"s
After Second World War, noone could say they are racist. Because, the Nazi damaged humanity and noone wants to be guilty like that any more. Consequently, even if a person is racist, he names him as “nationalist” instead of “racist”. Also, nobody use “chauvinist” to define himself, “nationalist” is the best way for all these people. But, are they really same?
According to Cambridge Dictionary;
Nationalism:
1. the desire for and the attempt to achieve political independence for your country or nation.
2. A great or too great love of your own country.
Chauvinism:
1. the strong and unreasonable belief that your own country or race is the best or most important.
Racism:
1. the belief that people's qualities are influenced by their race and that the members of other races are not as good as the members of your own, or the resulting unfair treatment of members of other races.
So, what mean, “nation” and “race”?
Nation:1.a country, especially when thought of as a large group of people living in one area with their own government, language, traditions, etc.2. a large group of people of the same race who share the same language, traditions and history, but who might not all live in one area.
Race:
1.A group, especially of people, with particular similar physical characteristics, who are considered as belonging to the same type, or the fact of belonging to such a group.
2. A group of people who share the same language, history, characteristics, etc.
The definitions show us that the differences are scarce between these concepts but there are many differences in usage. It is a fact that a person, who is not nationalist, cannot be considered a chauvinist or racist. That is the issue. First, you must be nationalist to be racist or chauvinist. Thus, we can also say that in practice, nationalism is the first step for the others but fundamentally, there is no difference. Some does not want to accept this, but that is the truth.
Some, who define themselves as nationalist, defend the idea that racism and nationalism are different from each other. Because, being racist became a crime after the Second World War. Therefore, these people do not want to define themselves as racist. They defend that there are many differences between racism and nationalism, but the descriptions are obvious. Nationalism is just another “ism”. That is all.
We have another “ism” that can be confused with the others: Patriotism. It means “love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it.” Actually, some parts of “nationalist” are patriotic. They do not want to define themselves as patriotic, because, in Turkey patriotism is known as a concept that belongs to the left wing.
As a conclusion, these definitions may not make somebody glad, because mostly people use these concepts unintentionally. They have prejudice and they have it only form hearsay. We have to learn all of these concepts completely and after that, we would better discuss them. Therefore, we will understand each other better and we will not be tool for somebody’s interests.