Watch Your Patriotic Steps
We all have an identity; everyone wants to feel like they belong somewhere. It is true then to say, showing patriotism to ones’ country is a positive attribute. But, the golden mean for this allegiance can have a deficiency that can affect our relationship to develop ethical relations with others. Having a strong allegiance to one’s group or community can affect how we see and treat other people that are not like us, and in some cases, it infringes on the right of others. These include depriving people of their fundamental human rights and freedom, a broken social system that solidifies segregation and people that fail to recognized moral obligations to the rest of the world.
To be or not to be?
It is good to be patriotic, but it is especially important to keep the balance as we create that concentric circles of citizenship, we should move it towards all humanity. Cosmopolitans accept and indeed like the fact that people live in different ways; that free human beings will choose to live in a variety of ways and will opt to express themselves in various forms. The two principles of cosmopolitanism are respect for diversity and social differences and commitment to universal rights. The great collective egotistic behavior of a particular group or community undermines human being’s relationships with others and forms a spectrum that shifts away from cosmopolitanism. The effect of having a strong allegiance to one’s group or community can be detrimental as it causes segregation and hinders cosmopolitanism. With a President like Donald Trump, who vehemently claims to make “America great again” by banning refugees and Muslim people, it is clear that the fight for a pluralistic world is not over yet.
Not every Muslim is a terrorist, but that doesn’t stop Islamophobia and xenophobia in Canada and the United States. People discriminate against Muslims yet fail to see the wrongness of unethical nationalistic ideology displaying right in our backyard. What’s worst is that even government institutions have these policies in place that openly discriminates and fail to respect a person’s fundamental human right. But these policies are coated with diplomatic terms and heavily protected, and that makes change a distance dream. What is white supremacy? Why does President Trump disregard the idea that systemic discrimination can negatively affect the countries relationship with its population, as it leads to vigilantism?
Patriotism in its extreme can lead to segregation. Segregation can cause biases and nationalistic deficiency, that allows a group of people to oppress others with the notion that they are better or more superior than others. Segregation creates the idea of “us” versus “them” and when that notion get established the result is often unethical. Let’s unveil a time in history right here in Canada, during the Indian Residential School System. The primary objectives of the Residential Schools system were to remove and isolate Indigenous children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions, and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant “White/European” culture. The result of that dark history leads to oppression, violence, and separation of Indigenous children. The Indian Residential School System tainted this picture of a mosaic that Canada portrayed.
Global Citizenship
As a nation, we have to learn from the impact of slavery, the failure of the government on Indigenous people’s right and freedom and loosened that strong allegiance so enlightenment of ethics can follow. To develop an ethical relationship, we have to extend our knowledge and allegiance beyond one’s community or group. We have to realize that we live in a plural world, where people and things are different. We have to be able to study global cultures so we can have a better understanding of ourselves. We should not seek to assimilate others into our way of life but instead, recognize the differences in others and try to adopt intelligence deliberations about issues. I am not patriotic; I am a cosmopolitan citizen.
