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Summary:
Yes these two words Nationalism and Patriotism are different but many times people use
it in similar sense to depict love and devotion towards one’s country, whereas some people
say Nationalism is an extreme form of Patriotism while some people say the idea
of Patriotism is more rational and progressive than that of Nationalism.
DIFFERENCES
o A patriotic person tends to tolerate criticism and tries to learn something new
from it, but a nationalist cannot tolerate any criticism and considers it an insult.
o Patriots believe that their country is one of the best and can be improved in many
ways. Similarly most of the freedom fighters believe in the same way as a patriot
o Nationalism makes one try to find justification for mistakes made in the past, while
patriotism enables people to understand both the shortcomings and
improvements made.
o Nationalism means to give more importance to unity by way of cultural
background, including language and heritage. Patriotism pertains to the love for a
nation, with more emphasis on values and belief.
o Nationalism: Nationalism is an evil. It causes wars, its roots lie in xenophobia and
racism, it is a recent phenomenon - an invention of the last few centuries - which
has been of immense service to demagogues and tyrants but to no one else.
Disguised as patriotism and love of one's country, it trades on the unreason of
mass psychology to make a variety of horrors seem acceptable, even honourable.
For example: if someone said to you, 'I am going to send your son to kill the boy
next door' you would hotly protest. But only let him seduce you with 'Queen and
Country!' 'The Fatherland!' 'My country right or wrong!' and you would find
yourself permitting him to send all our sons to kill not just the sons of other
people, but other people indiscriminately - which is what bombs and bullets do.
o Patriotism: While we tend to think of a patriot as a person who puts his country
first in opposition to another country,originally the term meant one who
supported the rights of "country" or "land" against the King and his court. In other
words, a patriot stood for the rights of local self-government and was opposed to
tyrannical rule-even by his own king. Thus, true patriotism is the impulse to defend
one's land, country or way of life against unjust governmental oppression.
Patriotism and nationalism are kind of similar: they are both attemps to show respect and
affection for your country. But nationalism is different from patriotism in the sense that’s
about the nation.
The collectivity of the people. The language. The culture. The religion. The food. The clothes.
The typical way of living. Nationalism is defending everything that makes your country, in
some way, special, different, unique. Nationalism is way wider than patriotism. It’s not about
the country: it’s about defending the whole way of life.
Extreme nationalism is, well, nationalism but extreme. Very strong. To an unhealthy point.
It’s the nationalism that basically says “my country kicks you country’s ass!” and often tries
to really do it. Nazism and fascism had an very important extreme nationalist sentiment.
About racialism, it’s a completely separate thing. Is a belief that human are divided into
races (not ethnic groups, races) that have some certain characteristics. It’s often called
“scientific racism” because it tries to make racism sound true in a scientific way. There are
not very numerous now, but in a certain time (specially early 20th century) racialism was a
serious thing. If you look it up, you can find many antropologists and sociologists from that
time saying that some races have some tendencies.
Do you know many brazilians, specially in the Southern Region, are white? Italian, german,
polish. That’s because Brazil was a fan of scientific racism. The brazilian government tried to
make Brazil more white and called many immigrants. This led to also some racist reactions.
In the 1946 Brazilian Constitution, for one vote, it wasn’t put into law a prohibition of the
entering of japanese immgrants. They were very influenced by Oliveira Vianna, a famous
sociologist. He famously said “the japanese is like sulfur: insoluble”. Another of his frases
was “the 200 millions hindus aren’t worth what a handful of english who control them”.
Manuel de Oliveira Lama, brazilian diplomat said about the japanese immigrants in a letter
to the Foreign Relations Ministry that the brazilain shouldn’t mix with a “inferior race”. The
fun part is that he was the one who opened the Brazilian Diplomatic Mission in….Japan. So
you imagine, how strong it is this when a government offical the represents Brazil in Japan
says that japanese are inferior. It wasn’t a big deal because it was the norm: it was science.
In 1905, a magazine from Rio de Janeiro said: “the São Paulo government is stubborn. After
the unsuccess of the first japanese immigration wave, hired 3.000 yellows . Is stubborn
because wants to give Brazil with a race diametrically opposed to ours.” The magazineuses
the word amarelos, that literally translates to “yellows” or “yellow people”. This is scientific
racism (or racialism): trying to make racism and even eugenia a real thing throught science.
NATIONALISM
Nationalism is an ideology based on the premise that an individual's loyalty and devotion
to one's country should come above the interests and opinions of other citizens or the
interests of a certain group of citizens.
The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its
deficiencies. Nationalism is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants
to be and proclaims itself to be "the greatest". Question to be asked here is - should such
self-proclaimed greatness be above rational thinking and goodness?
PATRIOTISM
Patriotism is an attachment to a homeland. The love and adoration for the place where an
individual is born, brought up, and the nation that place belongs to. These attachments
can be related to ethnic, cultural, political or historical. Patriotism is also being proud of a
country's virtues but with an eagerness and readiness to correct its deficiencies to be
better. Patriotisn acknowledges the patriotism of citizens of other countries and respects
their virtues.
It encompasses a set of concepts closely related to those of nationalism.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE, THEN?
An excess of patriotism in the defense of a nation is called chauvinism or jingoism.
The difference between patriotism and nationalism is simple - a patriot loves his country
and is proud of it for what it does whereas a nationalist loves his country and is proud of
his country NO MATTER WHAT IT DOES.
Quite clearly, patriotism nurtures a feeling of 'responsibility' in the citizens while
nationalism breeds 'blind arrogance' or ignorace and often, that leads to a war.