Organized Hatred

The phrase organized hatred is scary and it should be. Not because of the holocaust or anything specific but because of everything that can be

associated with it. And aren't we slightly overdue to show we've learned a little something from our mistakes?

It would be accurate to say that most people love their countries, right? We all know they're plugged up like leaky dams, but if it came down to

defending our country there would be a lot more people standing their ground than giving it up. Regardless of where we live. Because we've all been

nationalized.

That's not to say nationalism started out as an insidious idea. Different cultures spoke different languauges and each one boasted accomplishments that

made us proud. Part of this got ingrained into our identity and showed itself to us as good because it helped us love each other. But what we saw was only

the mask. Things soon got out of control.

Skipping over empires because they were all so blunt, we developed Crusades so we could impose our God's will on one another in the name of our king.

Or sultan. This led to animosity between religions fighting over the same sacred ground and aggravated relations between Muslims and Christians for hundreds

of years. In fact, negative impacts are still being felt today. Mistrust and animosity are everywhere.

Fighting for god and king then got upgraded to colonial expansion in the name of purifying heathens and annexing natural resources around the world. We

built navies and amassed armies to protect these expanding kingdoms. We also advanced diseases in the process, devastating some populations by chance and

others intentionally - here, borthers, take these blankets if you're cold, and nevermind the fact we only gave them to you because we knew they were infected

with small pox. Cheers!

This devolved into acute nationalism, which featured ative espionage and intricate intrigues among the royal members of each monarchy's court as

everyone entitled to hold power sought to expand their personal influence. Families like the Hapsburgs had cousins marry cousins to maintain power. The

specifics of these activities usually weren't known to the general public, but there were always rumors. This created an overall atmosphere of discontent

and led to many revolutons in both established countries and their oppressed colonies.

A hundred years later, in China, there was the Period of Warlords, a perfect microcosm for what was going on around the world as nations began to use

mass media to convince their peoples to fight wars for noble causes when in reality they were more likely to be seving the narrow needs of those who held

personal power or could live with building huge fortunes on war profiteering.

The Cold War was a propaganda bonanza waged by two superpowers, which is merely a polite way of saying empires, and now there's only one. So here we

are, a few thousand years later, playing the same silly baby games. Probably because we allow ourselves to be chopped up into more consumable bits by the

nations we love but who rarely seem to return the favor.

What do you think we should do about that?

And what's your point?

By the way, nationalism didn't arise until shortly after the French Revolution during the wars that followed. From there, it spread with Napoleon's armies to the other countries of Europe.

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"I am in favor of Free Trade"

--Karl Marx

Our pattern of stupidity needs to be disrupted. That's my point.

And I understand Napoleon's nationalism. What I'm saying is that we've played various forms of the same game since Plato gave us the Republic. Religion, love of king and country, rabid nationalism, propaganda machines - it's all us lying to ourselves because we're too immature to admit we don't really know what's going on in the universe, least of all our place in it.

all separation hurts our species, and nationalism does that. intentionally.

'Imagine there's no country, it's easy if you try'.....John Lennon

A favorite.

Also, thanks for the comments.

Cheers!

I agree. No hell below us. Above us only sky. Imagine all the people.... Imagine John Lennon

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Acceptance is the answer

"Im a Tarte, what! you want some of this?"