Vladimir Lenin - Jonathan Miller - Thorstein Veblen - Anthony Meyer - Richard Adlington - George Orwell - Zbigniew Brzezinski - Albert Einstein - Noam Chomsky - Geoff Mulgan - Arthur C Clarke - Erich Fromm - Doug Stanhope - Putin Russia and the West TV - Reggie Yates TV - Elizabeth Gaskell - William Godwin - Voltaire - David Reynolds TV - Simon Schama TV - The Death of Yugoslavia TV - Play for Today TV -
Marxism is incompatible with nationalism. Vladimir Lenin, On the Jewish Question
The wedding of Christianity or Judaism and nationalism is lethal. Jonathan Miller, The Atheism Tapes, Arthur Miller
Born in iniquity and conceived in sin, the spirit of nationalism has never ceased to bend human institutions to the service of dissension and distress. Thorstein Veblen
I question the right of that great Moloch, national sovereignty, to burn its children to save its pride. Anthony Meyer, cited Listener 27th September 1990, against Falklands War
Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill. Richard Adlington 1892-1962, English poet & novelist & biographer
Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. George Orwell
The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. George Orwell
Nationalism is no longer an option. Zbigniew Brzezinski
Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race. Albert Einstein, The World As I See It, 1934
Nationalism has a way of oppressing others. Noam Chomsky
All of nationalism can be understood as a kind of collective narcissism. Geoff Mulgan
It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars. Arthur C Clarke, The Exploration of Space, 1951
Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. ‘Patriotism’ is its cult. It should hardly be necessary to say, that by ‘patriotism’ I mean that attitude which puts the own nation above humanity, above the principles of truth and justice; not the loving interest in one’s own nation, which is the concern with the nation’s spiritual as much as with its material welfare – never with its power over other nations. Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship. Erich Fromm, The Sane Society, 1955
Nationalism does nothing but teach you how to hate people that you never met. And all of a sudden you take pride in accomplishments you had no part in whatsoever, and you brag about – and the Americans’ll go ‘Fuck the French! Fuck the French, if we hadn’t had saved their ass in two World Wars, they’d be speakin’ German right now!’ And you go, ‘Oh, was that us? Was that me and you, Tommy, we saved the French? Jesus! I know I blacked out a little bit after that fourth shot of Jägermeister last night, but I don’t remember ...’ Doug Stanhope, No Refunds
The atmosphere in Russia turned uglier. Nationalist gangs beat up migrant workers. Putin, Russia and the West II: Democracy Threatens, BBC 2011
Welcome to Russia ... I’m here to find out why so many young people are rallying round the flag. Far Right and Proud: Reggie Yates’ Extreme Russia, BBC 2015
There’s a darker side to Russian nationalism. ibid.
Numerous ultranationalist groups sprang up to protect against what they saw as a foreign invasion. ibid.
The kind of patriotism which consists in hating all other nations. Elizabeth Gaskell, Syvia’s Lovers, 1863
Love of our country is another of those specious illusions, which have been invented by impostors in order to render the multitude the blind instruments of their crooked designs. William Godwin, 1756-1836, English philosopher & novelist, husband of Mary Wollstonecraft
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. Voltaire
Nowhere was that legacy more profound than in the unleashing of of nationalist fervour. The War made national identity a stark either/or issue, a matter of us or them. David Reynolds, Long Shadow III, BBC 2014
National self-consciousness among these ethnic groups of the Habsburg Empire was rising before the War. ibid.
And what was left after the traumatic convulsions of post-war nationalism was a bitter divided Ireland: partition between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. This was an invented mini-state nominally run from Belfast but in reality dependant on London for funding and security. ibid.
And now a new empire, the Soviet Union, was taking a grip on Czechoslovakia and most of Eastern Europe. It demanded that national identity be subsumed in socialist internationalism as defined by the Kremlin. ibid.
It gets you every time doesn’t it … It was the Romantics who gave us this intense passion for the nation. Who in their poetry, music and art transformed the sentimental fondness we all feel for our place of birth into something bigger and deeper – the secular devotion of national belonging. Simon Schama, The Romantics & Us III: Tribes, BBC 2020
Nationalism is above all the emotion of longing to go back or stay where you came from. ibid.
Belgrade, Serbia, 19 November 1988: This is the man whose embrace of nationalism is blamed for all the wars in Yugoslavia today: Slobodan Milosevic. The Death of Yugoslavia I: Enter Nationalism, BBC 1996
He [Milosevic] asked the Yugoslav state council to grant him emergency powers in Kosovo. ibid.
So began a secret operation that would culminate in Croatia’s war of independence from Yugoslavia. The Death of Yugoslavia II: The Road to War
With the collapse of communism, the two major republics – Serbia and Croatia – fell under the sway of rival nationalism. ibid.
The bleak land of southern Croatia was home to large numbers of Serbs. It was here that the fuse was lit that would lead the whole of Yugoslavia to ignite. ibid.
The Yugoslav high command faced the fact that the government of Croatia was equipping itself to form a rival army. ibid.
With a mixed population of Muslims, Serbs and Croats, Bosnia had most to lose if Yugoslavia descended into civil war. ibid.
‘If we grant the Croat people the right to leave Yugoslavia, then they can’t deny others the right to make their own choice.’ The Death of Yugoslavia III: Wars of Independence, Milosevic
Once the army was done, the local Serbs walked in. The Yugoslav flag was raised as the army seized Croat town after Croat town. ibid.
Milosevic’s generals, unimpressed by peace plans, had just begun shelling the ancient walled city of Dubrovnic. ibid.
One by one the other presidents approved the plan and voted for independence. Soon, Serbia would not have another republic to stay federated with. ibid.
Now they controlled one third of Croatia. ibid.
Bosnia, April 1992: Serbia’s president Milosevic has repeatedly said that the conflict in Bosnia was a civil war for which he could not be blamed. But the men in charge of the murder and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia now describe his role. The Death of Yugoslavia IV: The Gates of Hell
‘I warn you. You’ll drag Bosnia down to hell. You Muslims aren’t ready for war – you could face extinction.’ ibid. Radovan Karadzic, leader Bosnian Serbs
Sarajevo, March 1992: For centuries Muslims, Serbs and Croats had lived here together. Now they had to choose a future. ibid.
The streets of the capital fell into the hands of the rival militias. ibid.