Name: Frank Okwedadi

Date: 2008/2009

I confirm that this is entirely my own work; no part of it is copied from previous papers, nor does it include material from any published source without proper acknowledgement.

THE ROLE OF THE NATION STATE WILL CHANGE DRAMATICALLY AND THERE WILL BE NO MORE ROOM FOR NATIONALISM THAN THERE IS FOR SMALLPOX (Negroponte 1996).

The proliferation of Information and the technology that support it presently provides the electorate with a wealth of literacy, global awareness, and information about the elect, that the concept of nationalism is continuously being replaced by internationalism, and that a more global expectation of political rule is slowly replacing the notion of nationalism. This essay explores the statement made by Nicholas Negroponte that the role of the nation state will change dramatically and there will be no more room for nationalism than there is for smallpox (Negroponte 1996).

Nationalism is a term that is usually confused with patriotism. This confusion arises from the fact that the difference between both words seems trivial in literary terms, but has grave consequences in practical political reality.  United States journalist Sydney J. Harris, states “the difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does. The first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war” (Exeter News 2002).

Hence, a patriot loves his/her country but recognizes its deficits, while a nationalist sees no wrong with its country despite any short comings. The idea of patriotism is commonly used for acts of terrorism. In these situations, patriotism is sited in a bid to hide the realities of nationalism. Although, terrorism and nationalism are seen from different viewpoints, which are usually so distantly opposing that they end up equalling themselves (Mike 2001). Guy De Maupassant sees nationalism, or what can be called blind patriotism, as “a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched (Guy De Maupassant 1903).” The concept of a nation state focuses not on the government but implies that the citizens share a common language, culture and values, and that this geographically coincides with the state as a sovereign territorial unit. Nationalism is key because there will always be “demands for political loyalty to suppress dissent or views that differ from these culture and values (Leehey 2009).”

NATIONALISM IN THE INFORMATION AGE

At the end of the twentieth century, nationalism remains at least as powerful a force in our lives as it was a century ago (Goldmann 2000). On one hand the claim that the fundamental cultural patterns have not changed during the course of a century may arouse some resistance and the evidence of such continuity, however obvious, may seem surprising. While on the other hand society has become accustomed to rapid technological change and to the idea that changes in general is a normal and predictable part of social life. It no longer threatens our image of order, but represents an integral element of it (Goldmann 2000).

In the 1996 US Presidential elections, new information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet and World Wide Web (Web), began to play a visible role in US campaigns and elections, and its role has expanded to shape the political process more generally (Dutton 2001). Case studies have shown how the Web, for example, can facilitate the rapid exchange of information that is essential to coordinating political activity. By virtue of reducing the costs of communication, it has become accessible to grassroots organisations without the resources to mount more traditional media campaigns (Dutton 2001). More important than the electorate’s new found ease of communication with the elect, is the electorate’s new exposure to varying views on issues and socio-political concerns that exist within their particular political regions. An example is the B29 radio station in Serbia that stood as a voice of dissent in political issues, and was always being shot down by the government when ever serious political issues arose. They in turn, out of necessity, made changes to adapt to the governments tools of limitation, by switching their broadcasts to the internet, and hence existing outside the government ability to limit or shot down their broadcasts.

“It is the third time in its ten-year history that B92 radio station has been banned. But [sic] the station switches to the net and its broadcasts are bounced back over Eastern Europe by satellite, bringing its message to much wider attention than if they’d been left alone. The Serbian authorities, says Veran Matic, simply didn’t understand the possibilities of the internet (Meikle 2002: 59).”

  1. Nationalism, or what can be equated to blind patriotism, is fostered by ideologies which themselves spread through information. This various ideologies or voices are primarily aimed at creating mindsets which when sufficiently resounded tend toward norms. Anyone who opposes these norms or bear opinions that shift from the ethos risk social isolation, exile or even graver acts of reproach.   The question then must be that do we want to live in a monochromatic world of monotonous world views, or do we want to embrace a polychromatic world of diversity, where differences in political and socio-economic opinions are reflected, and a greater wealth of knowledge and views are available options of thought. Anthropologist Margaret Mead, before she died, said that her greatest fear was that as we drifted towards this blandly amorphous generic world view not only would we see the entire range of the human imagination reduced to a more narrow modality of thought, but that we would wake from a dream one day having forgotten there were even other possibilities (Wade 2003).

INTERNATIONALISM RATHER THAN NATIONALISM

The “global village” phenomena; the globalization of cultures, races, images, capital, products and the “information age” redefinition of nation-state identities, which were the foundation of the modern era, has brought about a dissemination of images and information across national boundaries, a sense of erosion or breakdown of national, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural identities, as well as a sense of a global mixing of cultures on a scale that has never been experienced before (Irvine 2009). This diminishing of difference, identity and culture might be said to be the cause for the struggle for identity present in the society today.  The sense of the individual with a unified centred self and identity has been replaced by the sense of the fragmented, decentred individual with multiple conflicting identities. On the broader scale, media systems with the centralized one-to-many communications paradigm (broadcast networks and TV), are being replaced by the more recent digital, interactive, distributed, client to server (client ‘is’ server), user-motivated, individualized, many-to-many media systems paradigm (Napster and the Web) (Irvine 2009).

The effect of this is that as media systems move from the earlier one-source-multiple-channels model to the fragmented-sources-and-channels model, the ability of governments to influence its citizens’ views and ideologies breaks down, and the citizenry build their own political knowledgebase and ideology from combinations of much more diverse voices, hence the notion of global political awareness at national and local levels. This is why the internet is the key focus of the E-government movement, because no one spoon feeds you what to browse or consume and you can consume ideologies from communist states while resident in a capitalist one and vice versa.

Indeed, the future of the convergence of communication technologies is often described in comfortingly familiar ways. It apparently offers interactive communication (like talking), information (like books), ‘uncensorable’, unlimited access of everyone to everything (like libraries, but better). In addition, it is said to offer interactive ‘responsible’ democracy, at a time when the rewards of being a citizen are increasingly restricted and there is the emergence of an excluded underclass, particularly in the very wealthiest societies (Curran 1997: 240).

REFERENCES

Curran, J. (1997) Power without Responsibility: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain. Florence, KY, USA: Routledge

Dutton, W. and Wan-Ying, L. (2001) ‘Using the Web in the democratic process.’ European Review 9, (2) 185-199 [online] available from <http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=CF38E7B280BE590BF5A89D8C67A3AE09.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=77711> [19 April 2009]

Exerter News (2002) The difference between patriotism and nationalism [online] available from <http://archive.seacoastonline.com/2002news/exeter/e3_19_e1.htm> [16 April 2009]

Goldmann, K. (2000) Nationalism and Internationalism in the Post-Cold War Era. London: Routledge [online] available from <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/coventry/Doc?id=10062925&ppg=2> [19 April 2009]

Guy de Maupassant and Caesar de Sumichrast F. (1917) The complete works of Guy de Maupassant: Translations and critical and interpretative essays. France: Brunswick Subscription

Irvine, M.  (2009) Approaches to the Post-Modern, Post-modernism, and Post-Modernity [online] available from <http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html> [19 April 2009]

Leehey, C. (2009) Nationalism: Blind Patriotism [online] available from <http://imagesofiowa.blogspot.com/2009/03/nationalism-blind-patriotism.html> [19 April 2009]

Meikle,G. (2002) Future active: media activism and the internet. Austrailier: Pluto Publisher [online] available from <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RYXkBKpLwWgC> [19 April 2009]

Mike, Z. (2009) Blind Patriotism [online] available from <http://www.amazines.com/article_detail.cfm/806979?articleid=806979> [19 April 2009]

Negroponte, N.  (1996) Being Digital. London: Hodder & Stoughton

Wade, D. (2003) Ted Talks: Cultures at the far edge of the world [online] available from <http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/69> [19 April 2009]