Nationalism, Patriotism, and New Subjects of Ideological Hegemony

Abstract

I. Introduction Western imperialism began in the 15th century, as Spain and Portugal explored and colonized lands in the Americas and West Indies. The period of imperialist expansion continued for more than 400 years as Italy, Spain, Britain, Germany, Portugal, France, Belgium and even the United States continued land grabs for resources. Many theorists and historians regard the beginning of World War I as the climax of imperialism. However, aggressive desires to restore the idea of empire resurfaced in Nazi Germany and in the present-day United States, a nation that maintains an unchallenged hegemony through military and economic supremacy and technological and scientific advancement. The historical periods noted provide a framework for British imperialism, German fascism, and American capitalism. From the mid-nineteenth century onward, each of the ideologies influenced the creation of national identities that inspired patriotic fervor so volatile, it necessitated outward expansion and colonization of indigenous populations and cultures, the privileging of social groups, the redistribution of wealth and resources, the creation of government infrastructures, and the institutionalization of new political systems. In the late-nineteenth century, patterns of discrimination were enforced by British and German imperial rule and a common search for national consciousness. Britain's First Empire was comprised of colonies of settlers in Ireland, Wales, and the Americas, prior to the thirteen colonies achieving independence from British rule in 1783. The Second Empire of the Victorian Period was made up of elements of the First Empire as well as India. (1) Britain's success at creating and sustaining empire, particularly during the Victorian period, was a motivating factor that shaped and directed the course of distinct hegemonies of fascist Germany and capitalist America. Germany's short-lived colonization of Africa and the Pacific, and its eventual concession of many colonial settlements at the end of World War I, set the stage for the growth of fascism during the early 1930s and 1940s. The same patterns of discrimination enacted by British imperialists resurfaced in America in the early 20th century, as waves of immigrants endured hostility, alienation, and disenfrachisement from native-born Americans. Massive swells in immigrants and a growing cultural diversity antagonized conceptions of national unity. During World War II, animosity and hostility toward German and Japanese Americans led to resettlement, encampment, and other restrictive measures that enforced policies of discrimination. In a similar fashion, Asian and Arab Americans endured social and cultural displacement during the Korean and Vietnam wars, and Gulf Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite their ideological differences, British imperialism, German fascism, and American capitalism each directed cumulative energies toward establishing the threat of foreign and domestic antagonists effecting each nations' sovereignty. In so doing, these ideologies were used to exaggerate nationalist sympathies, to legitimize foreign and domestic policies of intolerance toward immigrants, and to promote fears of alien influences. Be they actual or potential threats, antagonists came to symbolize the ideological tensions between non-natives and national culture. Samuel Johnson once characterized patriotism as the "last refuge of a scoundrel." (2) Although Johnson was not proclaiming patriots to be scoundrels, he was criticizing those whose "pretended patriotism ... becomes a cloak for self-interest," his words do suggest how noble expressions of patriotism might become hegemonic, destructive, and ultimately nativistic. (3) Nativistic sentiment is reproduced through various modes of culture and affects domestic habits and dispositions. It is the replication of nativism that stimulates hegemonic forms of domination and hegemony. As British, American, and German cultures projected their hostilities outward and toward a perceived foreign antagonist, they also organized nativist movements to purge themselves of domestic minority groups that had any affiliation to such foreign influences. …