I Heart My Country

In our reading, Silvo Waisbord suggests that Nationalism means different things to different people. “One nation’s intolerant chauvinism is the flip side of other nations’ patriotic sense of difference and community.” (Waisbord, pg. 376) When I see this picture


I think “well, I don’t agree with her at all, but her view of America, what it stands for and what it means to be ‘American’, is threatened. And that’s a discouraging problem.” I think the same thing when I see this picture


Only switch out America and American for Swiss. Some cultural similarities stop at a country's border, but fear and manipulative imagery has no boundary.

We’re fortunate to live in an era where most of us are literate, and have the capacity to be well informed. The problem I see is that in order to reinforce what we hold dear to us, we use our country and what it’s ideals are as a to isolate or invalidate those who disagree with us. I’m somehow ‘un-American’ if I think taxes help oil the machine that I rely on. I’m not a “real American” because I’m from California and therefore am obviously an out of touch liberal. Not only do some people use Nationalism to set us apart from other countries, but we’re increasingly using it against ourselves. Historically, America and being American, is something that evolved and changed as each wave of immigrant group, each invention, and each policy decision happened. Wanting to dig in our heels and stop being a part of an increasingly global 21st century is like boxing a glacier—impossible and tiring. We also don’t have to jump in whole-heartedly, as inevitably, this is the direction our past and present is taking us. But in the meantime, people around the world and in the States use media to broadcast their message, trying to support one idea over the other, via newspaper, internet or cable tv stations in the hopes of accomplishing…what exactly? Waisbord stresses the importance of understanding media's role in Nationalism. Currently, the people that run the media know that the public is increasingly only choosing to view/read/listen to one message or voice (like Fox vs. MSNBC) so for example, instead of doing what journalists do—inform—they filter and interpret, taking the thought process away from the viewer/reader.

It’s understandable that an increasingly smaller and globalized world can be a startling and scary thing. No one wants to lose their identity or culture. The more aware we are of others, their beliefs and their culture, the more we become aware of our own. We become protective of it, although sometimes without understanding what it even is, because we fear the unknown that change often brings. Being proud of, and in love with, a country is fine. Each country has an amazing history, rich culture and traditions that bring people together, and something that it can offer the rest of the world. But Nationalism brought on by fear of losing that uniqueness, and carried to far by mass media and broadcast all over the world, can cause others to fear where the sentiment may lead.(This is a good example: ) We have much to be proud of in this country, but wanting to be at the top carries a certain responsibility, I think, not to make the rest of the world afraid of patriotic sentiment. One doesn’t have to become a Globophile, as Waisbord mentioned, or a Globophobe, but we have to be conscientious of the messages we broadcast around the globe, the countries and people that share it with us, and our role in effectively communicating our pride.

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