Just Finished Reading: Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell (1945) [52pp]
As is usually the case with these Penguin booklets, this contains three short extracts from a larger work – in this case the cunningly named collection Essays. I’ll circle back to the larger title piece but first I want to mention the two others.
First (or actually second) we have Antisemitism in Britain (1945) which discusses the rise in this prejudice during WW2 and at around the time of its end (at least in Europe). It's certainly a subject I don’t know a whole lot about, so I was a little surprised to find that antisemitic beliefs increased both when Jewish refugees were fleeing an increasingly dangerous Europe and even after the discovery of the concentration camps was starting to filter through. It seems like an amazing example of blaming the victim.
Lastly, was a short piece, The Sporting Sprit (1945), on Football (that’s soccer for my American readers) and specifically about the visit of the Russian team Moscow Dynamo at the end of the war on a good-will set of games. Apparent this did not go down well for some reason. I only mention it here because of the interesting throw-away idea that the growth in global sports – Football, Rugby & Cricket (and no doubt others) only really took off in concert with the emergence and growth of Nationalism. That might be an interesting idea to pursue further...
The first and main text was the main titled Notes on Nationalism (1945) which impressed me, as Orwell often does, with its insight and modern feel. Some passages might have been published in the better newspapers and magazines in the last few weeks rather than 80 years ago. For example:
“The nationalist does not go on the principle of simply ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him. Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also – since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself – unshakably certain of being in the right.”
You can see why I like Orwell SO much. Needless to say, I enjoyed this thought provoking little booklet and will be acquiring the larger Essays collection (and his other non-fiction) as soon as I can.
2 comments:
Nationalism is basically our core primate-tribal instinct on steroids.
Antisemitism is especially troublesome -- it's surfaced in the US on both sides of the political spectrum, and almost wholly because of Israel. Rightists despise how Israel clearly drives DC's foreign policy, and leftists despise Israel for its abhorrent policies toward Palestinians as a group. Both have legitimate moral 'urges', but it's leading both to irrational conspiracy theories and violence against Jews. Of course, in Orwell's day antisemitism was feeding from different troughs, but there was the same conviction that 'Jewry' was undermining 'the country'.
I see a lot of the mistrust is driven by the idea of 'divided loyalties'. Much like Catholics were deeply mistrusted for quite a lot of our history. I think part of the problem today with Antisemitism is that any legitimate criticism of Israel (meaning by and large her government) is called antisemitic as a kneejerk response/defensive move. Clearly they're not the same thing.
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