Love or Superiority? Patriotism and Nationalism: One Homeland — Two Different Goals

Patriotism and nationalism are often confused. Unfortunately, this confusion comes at a very high cost today. It costs millions of broken and senselessly lost lives.

I would very much like to share these thoughts with as many people as possible, especially with the young, who today are so often fed nationalist ideas disguised as patriotic ones. But the truth is that patriotism and nationalism share only one thing — the homeland. Everything else in these concepts is diametrically opposed.

So.

Patriotism begins with love.It is love for one’s homeland and everything connected to it: its language, cultures, people, and history. And this love is not blind. It is expressed in the desire to make the homeland better, to work for the benefit of one’s country and its people: to discover, invent, strengthen the economy, and build a future for — everyone — among one’s fellow citizens. Patriotism is constructive. It creates.

A patriot takes pride in the achievements and cultural heritage of their country, but also understands that the homeland is not only the past, not only victories, but also complexity, diversity, and contradictions. They accept and respect multinationality and multiculturalism — the values of all who happen to be born on the same land. It is precisely this diversity that makes a country ALIVE.

Most importantly, patriotism does not require comparison, and a patriot does not need anyone else to be worse. One’s feelings for the homeland can be compared to love for one’s own family: we love it not because it is better than all others, but because it is ours — even if it is not perfect. Comparison with others’ here is inappropriate, even absurd. It is impossible to love your own family more by hating and being hostile toward other families.

Love for the homeland, like love for family, is unconditional, and it does not depend on personal grievances toward the actions of a particular government or individual citizens.

A vivid example is Vera Obolenskaya (her Maquis nickname was Viki). An émigré who lost everything due to Soviet power and was forced to move to France, she refused to cooperate with the Nazis against Soviet Russia:

Interrogator: Have they gone mad? What sense does it make for them to side with the Gaullists, in that communist nest? Listen, madam, help us better fight our common enemy in the East.

Viki: The goal you pursue in Russia is the destruction of the country and the extermination of the Slavic race. I am Russian, but I grew up in France and have lived here my whole life. I will not betray either my fatherland or the country that sheltered me.

Nationalism is built on the opposite logic.

It is the desire to prove the superiority of one nationality over another — even within the same country. It is not so much love for one’s own as it is the elevation of one’s own at the expense of others.

Nationalism focuses on the well-being of only those who belong to the “right” nationality. It is accompanied by the humiliation and devaluation of others. It resembles a person who, instead of improving their own home, fiercely tries to prove that their house is better than their neighbor’s. And if that fails, they begin blaming the neighbor for their own failures.

Any psychologist would say that such behavior is a sign of low self-esteem and an inferiority complex. It is an attempt to elevate oneself without creating anything — simply by diminishing others.

History confirms this. In Germany in the 1930s, nationalism — and then Nazism — spread in the aftermath of defeat in World War I and the economic crisis caused by reparations. Earlier, an active phase of nationalism’s development occurred during the Napoleonic Wars, when, in response to French expansion, nationalism began forming in Germany, Italy, and other countries.

Thus, nationalism emerges as aggression born of repression and humiliation — real or fabricated by those seeking to manipulate the minds of the majority for their own selfish purposes. Both historical and contemporary political events show that calls to glorify a nation always mask a simple desire to profit at a neighbor’s expense. If one nation is declared “better,” it automatically means others are worse or enemies — and can be treated accordingly.

Such a state of mind and spirit, based on envy, greed, and wounded pride, requires psychotherapy and not widespread promotion.

The attempt to elevate one nationality above others inevitably leads to internal conflicts, destroying a state from within. It is not so much love for one’s people as it is hatred for others. Therefore, unlike patriotism, nationalism is destructive. This is why it is actively used by politicians and global elites to create an image of an enemy, making it easier to incite wars.

This leaves an open question:

What should a patriot do when nationalists in their own country begin to devalue and attack your language and culture, which differ from theirs? What should one do when nationalism becomes a direct cause of the collapse of a state that you — a bearer of a slightly different heritage — love as a patriot? Should one submit to pressure and repression out of fear, abandon one’s identity, and “switch” to what is imposed instead? Should one actively fight for what seems like an inalienable right — to speak one’s native language and study one’s culture, that is, fight for a place under the sun? Or fight against nationalism altogether? Or perhaps simply leave the country?

Everyone has their own answer.

But one should remember that in the modern world there are no longer countries made up of a single nation. And as long as nationalism is tolerated, and as long as it thrives, there will always be a risk of its resurgence somewhere on our small planet — inhabited by the same Homo sapiens…