One of the things that has been swirling around my mind lately is the difference between celebrating who we are as a community and the far more troubling rise of nationalism.
On the surface they can sometimes look similar. Both can involve waving flags, singing songs, and shouting loudly about identity. But in practice, they couldn’t be further apart.
Read more below.
When I talk about community pride or shared cultural experience, I’m thinking about the joy of gathering with people who know the same music as you, who sometimes eat the same food, or who have fought the same struggles. It’s about finding each other, lifting each other up, and saying we have shared realities. Pride can be eating plant-based food with friends, it can be cheering on your favourite local football club, or it can be holding a festival that centres around your shared history.
It is inclusive, connective, and celebratory.
Nationalism, on the other hand, often demands an enemy. It defines itself not by what it celebrates, but by who it excludes. It is obsessed with borders, purity, and control. Instead of being about joy, it is about fear. Instead of making people feel welcome, it decides who doesn’t deserve to be here. The most dangerous part of nationalism is how quickly it can shift from a simple chant or a flag to policies that hurt people, to violence in streets, and to whole communities being pushed out of the places they’ve always called home or need/want to call home.
I think we need to be careful not to confuse the two. Pride in your culture or community is perfectly OK and necessary for our wellbeing. It heals wounds and makes us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. Nationalism pretends to do the same, but underneath it is often mean-spirited and exclusionary.
As someone who has been part of many overlapping communities, I know how powerful it is to stand together, to say that we are proud of who we are. But I also know how much damage can be done when pride is twisted into nationalism.
The difference matters, and I hope more of us can choose connection over exclusion.
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