From Dan Sanchez at antiwar.com:
Libertarian stand-up comic Doug Stanhope has said:
“Nationalism does nothing but teach you to hate people you never met, and to take pride in accomplishments you had no part in.”
I would only quibble with the “nothing but” part. The collectivist herd-think that is nationalism also teaches you to take offense at imagined insults that have absolutely nothing to do with you personally.
Take for example the outrage of American nationalists over President Obama’s dealings with Iran. They denounce the nuclear deal that his administration negotiated (which on Saturday led to the lifting of international sanctions on Iran) as a total capitulation that makes all of America look weak.
Never mind that the entire Iran nuclear scare is, as Gareth Porter has thoroughly demonstrated, a phony, manufactured crisis in the first place. Never mind that the peace deal actually makes individual Americans more secure by decreasing the likelihood that their sons and savings will be sucked into yet another disastrous war in the Middle East.
For the nationalist, what is imperative is that “muh herd” must come off looking, not rational and wise, but intimidating and domineering. If not, he grumbles about “national humiliation.”
This attitude toward Iran is most vividly displayed in the political cartoons of Michael Ramirez at Investor’s Business Daily. Many years ago, Ramirez got into hot water over a cartoon deemed offensively critical of Israel. Now he seems to be performing penance by pouring from his pen an endless stream of propaganda against Israel’s nemesis Iran. Ramirez’s innumerable Iran cartoons invariably depict the leaders of Iran as hard-nosed, implacable America-haters, while Obama is drawn as a pin-headed, pusillanimous appeaser.
Days ago, Ramirez and his fellow anti-Iran humiliation-mongers gleefully found their most usefully symbolic image when photographs were released of U.S. sailors being arrested by Iranian soldiers. They had been briefly detained by the Revolutionary Guard after illegally (and mysteriously) entering Iranian territorial waters. After the Obama administration apologized (horror!) for the encroachment, the sailors were freed without injury.
Ramirez then drew a cartoon captioned “The Obama Iran Policy” depicting Uncle Sam surrendering alongside the sailors, all kneeling with their hands on their heads. The photograph that the cartoon was based on spread throughout the conservative reaches of the internet, accompanied with howls of indignation.
Never mind that the sailors had no business being in a foreign country’s territorial waters. Never mind that Iran has cause to be wary, having for decades been targetted by the US and its allies for sabotage and assassination. Never mind that for a quarter of a century, the U.S. imposed a brutal dictatorship over Iran after overthrowing their government in a C.I.A. coup. Never mind that in 1988, from the same waters where the sailors were stopped, the U.S. Navy blew an Iranian airliner out of the sky, killing 290 passengers, including 66 children, for which the U.S. has never apologized. Shortly afterward, in a separate context, Vice President George H.W. Bush warmed the hearts of nationalists by saying, “I will never apologize for the United States — I don’t care what the facts are… I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.”
To continue reading: Humiliation and Herd-Think
