[🇵🇰] Why National identity is toxic and fake

[Old School]

Source : https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/24/national-identity-fake-toxic-intolerance-italy-fascism

"Yet that's precisely when national identity becomes a poison. It may foster solidarity at one level, but it can become a serious impediment to cooperation on a larger scale. My country's well-intentioned founding fathers invented an Italian identity which, decades later, gave rise to fascism, the extreme glorification of national identity. Fascism went on to inspire Hitlers's nazism. The intense emotional identification of Germans with a single Volk ended up devastating Germany and much of Europe. When we value conflict over cooperation, and stop searching for compromise and agreed rules, national identity becomes toxic."
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[Old School]

[H1]Understanding the Real Risks Behind National Identity[/H1]
Nationalism can be used, as a recent New York Times video argues, to exlude and villify outsiders. However, it can also be used to overcome linguistic and tribal differences to provide public goods and promote stability during times of great upheaval.

To be sure, nationalism has been used by numerous leaders as a way to strengthen their political base by vilifying and sanctioning those portrayed as outsiders. While this certainly involves emotional and psychological elements, the use of exclusionary policies can be a rational, base political motive by elites within society. Russell Hardin offers a compelling narrative of how leaders and vested interests within a country may manufacture exclusionary policies to ensure their own wealth and prestige. By creating norms of exclusion, those selected to be part of the "in-group" may guarantee that they will have access to employment, education, and political representation. With regard to nationalism, an identity can be easily formed to only encompass certain ethnic or religious groups, relegating others into the "out-group." Equally, leaders within the government may willingly promote a continuation of political exclusion even if it risks leading to armed conflict with those disabused by the laws of the country. For example, following democratic reforms in the Ivory Coast, politicians fostered a nationalist movement to persecute and exclude citizens that immigrated from largely Muslim countries to the north such as Burkina Faso and Mali. This came to a head when these exclusionary policies led to a civil war in 2002 and a recurrence of fighting in 2011. Similar exclusionary, nationalist policies have led to prolonged conflicts in Sudan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.
Read more here Right for the Wrong Reasons: Understanding the Real Risks Behind National Identity