100 Years Later – The U-Turn towards ‘Patriotic’ Nationalism (#249)

A Century has passed since the end of the First World War. On November 11, 2018 the World remembered the signing of the ‘Armistice’ that ended one of the bloodiest and most horrific systematic slaughters, undertaken by humans against other humans, inspired by hyper-nationalism, a full 100 years ago. The times were such that some of the populations of the opposing nations (and their colonies) - Britain, France, Russia (on one side), and Germany, Austria and Italy (on the other side), all engaged in continental and global competition, actually cheered as competitive hostilities between them escalated into full-fledged war.

The national pride of each race, promoted by their leaders and understood by each of them as profound patriotism, looked to the coming contest and the anticipated defeat of the other side, almost as a competitive sports event, with as much anticipation. What followed was a sickening slow slaughter of participating humanity, taking place in a period of just over 4 years, unleashing every aspect of evil human industrial and technological ingenuity designed specifically to inflict as much death, dismemberment, and horrific agony as possible on the opposing side.

At the end of hostilities, at the signing of the Armistice, the military causalities of the ‘Great War’ were estimated to be 9 Million, while civilian deaths were estimated to be 7 Million. It is estimated another 50 to 100 Million people died as the indirect cause of the War, by disease, genocides and famines; suffice it to say nobody was cheering anymore, except that the prolonged horror had finally come to an end.

The First World War was called the ‘War to end all Wars’, but barely two decades later the World was once again at War, with basically the same sides squaring off against each other, but this time with the addition of Japan on the side of Germany. In this 2nd ‘Great War’, military casualties are estimated to be 21 to 25 Million, civilian casualties to be around 30 Million, total deaths are estimated between 70 to 85 Million (including war related disease and famine). The number of wounded who did not die but survived, are not known, but the number has to be equally horrific. Since then, due to cooperative multilateralism, and the nuclear deterrence, the World has managed to avoid World War III, so far.

The fact that war is a horrific and inhuman waste of everything, is to state the obvious, as over time gains become eroded and the sting of losses fade, and yesterday’s enemies become today’s friends and allies, and yesterday’s friends today’s enemies. The only permanent legacies of wars are the catastrophic loss of human lives, broken lives, and shattered countries. The next ‘Great War’ may threaten life on Earth itself, as the advancement of weaponry could extinguish life on this planet. And yet, humanity seems to be forgetting past horrors and is drifting towards that same virulent sense of national and racial uniqueness, national competitiveness and exceptionalism that had dominated those times.     

Even the freedom, hard-won in those wars, is being held in increasing contempt, by the very same Western countries that had fought off encroaching tyranny, and are now turning towards the authoritarianism and hate of others that had fuelled the misguided passions, crimes and atrocities, of the previous ‘Great’ wars.  

The sad part is, on the 100th anniversary of the end of the first ‘Great War’, the leading countries of the free democratic World are forgetting the price paid, and the reason, for the 70 decades or so of the most unprecedented era of peace and prosperity in the Western Democratic World (particularly Europe) and North America. The price paid for decades of peace and prosperity in the West, was tens upon tens of Millions dead and injured, and entire countries destroyed - and the reason – the vanquishing of hyper-nationalism and fascism,  and the ushering in of the new era of cooperation, multilateralism and globalism (the last 70+ years).

For those that now argue that globalism has been the problem, leading to job losses in western countries while a flood of illegal immigrants and refugees are coming in, and the discoloration and dilution of some form of pristine societies, there is only one answer – the results may be clear (job losses - migration & refugees), but the reasons for them sure are arguable and not so clear to the western objectors. Globalization, greater cooperation between, and integration of countries brought on peace and prosperity for decades, but slowly they also brought some seemingly new problems. While these problems may be new to the West, but are these problems really new (?), or just the ‘flow’ of the problems is different this time.

In the past (within this generation’s memory), the West was on a conquering and colonizing spree, and all benefits ‘flowed’ to the West, including cheap labour in the form of slaves, and ‘near slaves’ in the colonized countries. Now, instead of western societies colonizing the developing World, the developing World (in a small part) is coming to the western countries, mostly in the form of legal immigrants, but also as asylum seekers, migrants and refugees fleeing war, oppression and economic deprivation.

A lot of these migrants and refugees are also the legacy of the West’s colonial past, the result of decades of political subjugation, human-rights suppression, outright enslavement, and general natural resource and economic looting for the benefit of the colonizers, and their countries. The looted countries and their societies in Africa, Asia, Middle-East, and elsewhere, have struggled to recover, and a lot of them, having been stripped of their original leaderships, and ways of life, have never recovered, but instead descended into fragmented warring chaos. On top of that, the western countries have, to a large extent, led and fostered the wars, and supplied the weaponry from their well-developed ‘Military-Industrial-Complexes’ that need ‘growing markets’ for their deadly wares. Some of the biggest exporters of ‘War’ have been the biggest and most prosperous Western countries, like the United States, Russia, U.K., France, Italy, Germany, etc. (now China is a growing power in the arms trade).

This is not to say that the various developing countries are not at fault at all in the way they conduct themselves, and thereby make their problems worse, but it is still important to point out at this time, as resentment against the immigrants, migrants and refugees builds into ‘Nationalism’, that the western countries benefited immensely in the past from outright looting of the ‘New World’ and what is now known as the ‘Third World’, but back then some of it was the ‘First World’.

Additionally, the western workers are feeling threatened because the developing World is threatening the economic well being of western countries by utilizing their vast pools of ‘cheap labour’ at home, and cost-cutting the West (just like an industrializing ‘New World America’ cost cut ‘old’ British and European industries). Obviously, it was so much better for the western workers and societies when the taking was being done by them, wholesale, than now when they have to share some of what they have in resources, including space. Of course the West does not know the pain of having entire countries, tribes, societies and people ‘taken’. What the pain is, in sharing a little, cannot compare to losing it ALL to other societies, even if they were ‘Western’.

Not one to bemoan the colonizing times, and countries, we are aware enough of global history to know every tribe, society and country that could, invaded and took from its neighbours and others, and ‘to the conqueror belongs the spoils’; and that is why we are also not sympathetic to the moaning of those that decry loss of jobs and space in the West today. Jobs and demographic shifts are a part of human history and development, and will continue to be so in the future, as human knowledge, development, technologies, and the rise and fall of empires continues. 

Business will always need to bow to the ‘rules of business’, which are to produce goods and services at the most competitive prices, nearest the greatest markets for those products and services. In today’s World, those dynamics have shifted, as the most cost-effective manufacturing of products and services are in the developing countries (generally), while the biggest markets (in terms of purchasing power) are in the West. Even the ‘purchasing power’ bit may be shifting slowly, but for now that is reality. That is why Trump cannot ‘bring back all the jobs’. If the ‘West’ was to automate jobs to compete with the low-cost labour of the developing countries, such as China and India for example, the ‘East’ will follow suit. These are changing realities, and not someone stealing jobs. Besides, a lot of this cheap labour is working for western corporations with most of the profits flowing back home, or to tax havens.

In both the Great Wars, the ‘Western Nations’ marshalled all their resources to fight their wars in Europe (mainly). Those resources included, all the resources they could take from their colonies, including manpower, to fight and provide labor. The contribution of the ‘Colonies’ was not meager, in fact quite the opposite, it was considerable. The colony ‘manpower’ served and died by the tens to hundreds of thousands in the cause of their ‘Colonizers’, whether it was Britain, France, Germany, Italy or Russia, and the cost of ‘resources’ taken from the colonies: food, materials, or money, is probably incalculable, including millions of ‘natives’ dying of starvation as food was diverted to the warring nations.

So today’s sharing of resources or economic opportunities by western countries  is incredibly tame compared to ‘the take’ of yester-years by the West, from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Central and South America. Again this is not recounted as a gripe, but as statements of historical realities that put the current angst into some perspective, for people who are angry enough to want to retreat into individual national shells, blame others for their problems, and want to retaliate.

Yet people being what they are, usually ‘fair’ isn’t the first word that springs to their minds when it comes their turn to share, voluntarily; instead, race differential, ours, them, illegal aliens, invasion, refugees, and a host of other accusatory and  derogatory terms come readily to mind, as does the words ‘Proud Nationalism’. That kind of ‘us versus them’ mentality, especially as Nation States, has caused grievous harm to races, countries and regions, and is causing harm now, as an increasingly integrated World, of the recent past, starts to fracture with the rising tide of animosities, fanned by ‘Nationalist’ leaders like Trump, increasingly followed by others in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Central and South America; the latest addition being Brazil’s newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro.

There is good ‘Nationalism’ as in pride in one’s country in a positive way without prejudice, suspicion, and hatred for others. And, some of the most advanced and prosperous countries in the recent past have been blessed with that kind of nationalism, while being made up entirely of immigrants from all over the World.

The greatest examples of such countries are the United States and Canada (by no means the only ones). These two countries are some of the richest and most advanced countries in the World, and yet their populations are made up entirely of different races, even the white part. The ‘white’ Americans and Canadians are from ALL the various ‘white’ nations of the World, some of whom were bitter enemies back in their homelands, but are just ‘Americans and Canadians’ now. The same goes for all the ‘non-white’ races in these countries; they are literally from all corners of the World, living peacefully together as Americans and Canadians.

Besides, nationalism based on exclusion of others is no guarantee of security and prosperity, after all the two greatest and most destructive wars in history were started and fought mainly by ‘pure White’ Europeans, rife with proud, patriotic ‘Nationalism’ into which was dragged most of the World (being the colonies).  Recent history shows that ‘inclusion’ can build some of the greatest, most productive and powerful societies and countries. Ironically, the greatest example of this truth is America, excluding ‘Nationalist’ Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, of course.