Super-struct

[ACH0225]

Guys. This freaking article makes me want to smash my computer on the pavement

I am most certainly not a "slave" and I am not being turned into a brainwashed "child soldier".

No, you're not being turned into an unsuccessfully brainwashed child soldier. No polity is worth dying for; if you think otherwise, it's because they've subverted your natural tendencies to the point that you can no longer tell which path is most likely to leave you as something other than a smear on a tank tread.

There are a few things worth dying for. Your country is one of them, your family is another. Martyrdom is one of the most sacred and admirable acts you can ever take. To think otherwise is to follow the belief that your life is worth too much to sacrifice, and that living for nothing is preferrable to living and dying for something.

[Iv121]

With that being said if you were really put on the front line 50 meters from an armed enemy, will you still think about martyrdom ?

[҉]

There are a few things worth dying for. Your country is one of them, your family is another. Martyrdom is one of the most sacred and admirable acts you can ever take. To think otherwise is to follow the belief that your life is worth too much to sacrifice, and that living for nothing is preferrable to living and dying for something.

Die for you family, sure. Seems reasonable. An ideal--the idea of freedom, or democracy, or justice. Also reasonable. But there's nothing about any specific expression of freedom or democracy to make it any more worth than another. Dying for your national fervor is pretty much the same as dying for your loyalty to a particular brand of soda.

[ACH0225]

Nationalism is differentiated from petty loyalty by the fact that nationalism transcends the material. Nationalism isn't about "muh borders" or "muh culture". Nationalism is about the bonds between people in an area, and how everyone else isn't part of them. Nationalism is immaterial; it transcends borders, cultures, and just about any other factors aside from community. A nation is more than a set of laws, a border, and a government. A nation is a community of individuals set aside from other communities. This separateness is worth dying for; the disunity of communities means that one is inherently superior, and for yours to be superior is for your community, your nation, to be the premier and the most important, the center of the world, and the quintessential world ideal. To die for your nation is to die to raise up all your fellows, all the past soldiers of your nation and all its notables. To fight for your country is to fight and defend your nation from the masses of others, those not belonging to it and those who are therefore inferior.

[҉]

Nationalism is differentiated from petty loyalty by the fact that nationalism transcends the material. Nationalism isn't about "muh borders" or "muh culture". Nationalism is about the bonds between people in an area, and how everyone else isn't part of them. Nationalism is immaterial; it transcends borders, cultures, and just about any other factors aside from community. A nation is more than a set of laws, a border, and a government. A nation is a community of individuals set aside from other communities. This separateness is worth dying for; the disunity of communities means that one is inherently superior, and for yours to be superior is for your community, your nation, to be the premier and the most important, the center of the world, and the quintessential world ideal. To die for your nation is to die to raise up all your fellows, all the past soldiers of your nation and all its notables. To fight for your country is to fight and defend your nation from the masses of others, those not belonging to it and those who are therefore inferior.

But the idea that those who are not like us are inferior is what we should be fighting. No nation in the word represents the lone bastion of civilization that must be defended from the onrushing barbarian hordes. If you wish to die for the idea that you're better than anyone else just because of where you live, I'll gladly fire the shot--that's a cause worth fighting.

[ACH0225]

Nationalism is differentiated from petty loyalty by the fact that nationalism transcends the material. Nationalism isn't about "muh borders" or "muh culture". Nationalism is about the bonds between people in an area, and how everyone else isn't part of them. Nationalism is immaterial; it transcends borders, cultures, and just about any other factors aside from community. A nation is more than a set of laws, a border, and a government. A nation is a community of individuals set aside from other communities. This separateness is worth dying for; the disunity of communities means that one is inherently superior, and for yours to be superior is for your community, your nation, to be the premier and the most important, the center of the world, and the quintessential world ideal. To die for your nation is to die to raise up all your fellows, all the past soldiers of your nation and all its notables. To fight for your country is to fight and defend your nation from the masses of others, those not belonging to it and those who are therefore inferior.

But the idea that those who are not like us are inferior is what we should be fighting. No nation in the word represents the lone bastion of civilization that must be defended from the onrushing barbarian hordes. If you wish to die for the idea that you're better than anyone else just because of where you live, I'll gladly fire the shot--that's a cause worth fighting.

Despite your antinationalism, nationalism will never go away. The desire of the people to combat those who are not of them will, and has, always existed. The opinion that your nation is the premier is obviously highly subjective, but it exists nonetheless and is a powerful force. Likewise, the uneducated, unwashed masses outside the nation represent the others, those not of the group. Group mentality, an undeniable facet of humanity, pushes to eliminate or extinguish the others, to establish your group as superior. The alternative you might be thinking of is global unity, which cannot and will not exist; there will always be those dissatisfied with the unity, who will seek to break it, and will succeed eventually. The only other option for this is to accept your inherent nationalism and fully embrace it.

[҉]

So just because nationalism is inevitable, I should be willing to sacrifice myself for it? Gods no. Martyrdom has to do with dying willingly, even when you didn't have to and knowing that the path you took gave no chance of survival. That's not even remotely the same as embracing the tide of xenophobia and fighting to continue it; that makes you the guy with the lions.

[ACH0225]

So just because nationalism is inevitable, I should be willing to sacrifice myself for it? Gods no. Martyrdom has to do with dying willingly, even when you didn't have to and knowing that the path you took gave no chance of survival. That's not even remotely the same as embracing the tide of xenophobia and fighting to continue it; that makes you the guy with the lions.

In any society, martyrs are inevitable. Embracing nationalism doesn't mean throwing yourself into the fire so much as being willing to. Ideally, you won't have to.

[҉]

But it's a bad thing, despite (or perhaps, partially, due to) being inevitable. Being willing to die for it is a bad thing. Being willing to die fighting it, in the name of global peace, that's a good cause.

[ACH0225]

But it's a bad thing, despite (or perhaps, partially, due to) being inevitable. Being willing to die for it is a bad thing. Being willing to die fighting it, in the name of global peace, that's a good cause.

Global peace is, invariably, an idealist dream. There will never be a global peace that will last. Dying to suppress the fighting in the name of your nation is one option, dying to protect and serve your nation is another. Both further your nation's cause, and both kill you. While death is usually preferably avoided, in some options it is the last and greatest gift you can give to your nation, and doing so to forward your nation's goals even marginally is far better an option than living a life of inconsequential cowardice.

[҉]

If your nation's goal is to prove that it's better than all the other nations, forwarding it even marginally is worse than telling the xenophobes to go soak their heads and hanging yourself. Deciding to do something with your life is great, but if what you decide to do is wrong, it'd have been better for everyone if you hadn't.

[Error]

Nationalism isn't a bad thing; it's merely misplaced and misused.

Terra is my home. Not Canada; that's just a country. North America, a continent, landmass. No country is better than any others simply because of an inherent superiority; ergo, fighting because your nation is better is like fighting because, as Jedi said, you like brand X of pop better.

Fighting and sying to defend your country, its ideals, whatever - fine. Dying isn't preferably, obviously, but push sometimes comes to shove, and fighting and dying so those at home don't have to is certainly admirable.

Personally, nationalism is entirely misplaced. Don't fight for countries. Don't fight for borders. Fight for peace - which is, really, the only reason many people fight - and fight for, as it were, a better tomorrow. Honestly, looking at my homeworld, I don't see a bunch of borders and ethnicities - I see what should be a unified front, humanity's home - to me, nationalism is fighting for that.

Fuck 'inherent superiority'. That shit started World War Two.

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

And if people could start saying Earth or Tellus instead of Terra, that'd be great.
You live on Earth, not in the ground.

[Iv121]

Nationalism isn't a bad thing; it's merely misplaced and misused.

Terra is my home. Not Canada; that's just a country. North America, a continent, landmass. No country is better than any others simply because of an inherent superiority; ergo, fighting because your nation is better is like fighting because, as Jedi said, you like brand X of pop better.

Fighting and sying to defend your country, its ideals, whatever - fine. Dying isn't preferably, obviously, but push sometimes comes to shove, and fighting and dying so those at home don't have to is certainly admirable.

Personally, nationalism is entirely misplaced. Don't fight for countries. Don't fight for borders. Fight for peace - which is, really, the only reason many people fight - and fight for, as it were, a better tomorrow. Honestly, looking at my homeworld, I don't see a bunch of borders and ethnicities - I see what should be a unified front, humanity's home - to me, nationalism is fighting for that.

Fuck 'inherent superiority'. That shit started World War Two.

WW2 was up sooner or later anyway. As for nationalism I see no prob with it, as you seem to confuse nationalism and racism. Nationalism is the strive of a group with common identifying properties for a state of their own, nothing more nothing less.

[Error]

@Dayn Earth and Terra are both correct terms for the human homeworld. Just like Luna and the Moon are both correct. Tellus is an alternative name for Terra used on sci-fi.

Earth, Terra, Tellus, all correct. terra -0 (no capital) means ground or dirt. Terra - with cap - is the planet.