Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?
These ways of thinking -- cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on -- have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.
National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.
Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy""
One wonders what the results would have been if those conducting the poll had asked about U.S. military history, the history of American wars and famous battles. Would that poll have found more Americans (and, in fact, young Americans) aware of those battles and that history? Would they demonstrate that, while they are unaware exactly of history, they believe that America is number one and has been able to beat back "enemies" to remain free for more than two and a half centuries?
With every release of new video games like Call of Duty, which use American history to provide a storyline for a teenager or young adult's venture into the world of virtual military warfare, young Americans are treated to one more opportunity to participate in a version of American history malleable to widespread American perceptions of this country. Those perceptions are of an America that is fierce and powerful, an enforcer and liberator, a country capable of defending liberty and democracy (as Zinn suggests in the aforementioned column).
These video games do more than desensitize Americans to violence and ready them for firing a weapon and joining the National Guard. They create illusions around wars America has been involved in and build up justification for American involvement. It promotes the history of winners, America, and forgets the losers, whom Americans could learn much from.
Additionally, what American colonists did in the 1700s did not begin with war. It began with both the signing of a Declaration and acts of resistance like the Boston Tea Party--which political factions in America have co-opted, trivialized, and made a mockery of.
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