Nationalism… essentially it’s just daft!

I’m currently working my way through Ian Kershaw’s biography of Hitler and one of the main tenants of the dictator’s thought was of course of the superiority of the German nation. In our modern C21st western world we naturally baulk at any suggestion of racial superiority, the wars and ethnic cleansing of the C20th have ensured that if nothing else. However, scratch below the surface and often our inherent nationalism is plain for all to see. Two current news stories will suffice – the Rugby World Cup and more importantly and more worryingly the Euro zone melt down. I, like many millions around the world, support my national team when it comes to sports events and of course there is nothing wrong in that. What better way to spend a couple of hours than watching national teams of any sport, Rugby included, pitting their skills against one another simply for the pleasure of the game. It is, however, when nationalistic pride moves from the rugby pitch, or the sofa, to politics when things begin to turn ugly. As the news has reported the attempt by some MPs to try to ensure, ultimately, the removal of Britain from the European Union and at the same time watching our european cousins fight it out over exactly how much money they should lend to their so-called ‘allies’ that it seems nationalism once again is in danger of going too far. Given where we’ve come from this seems particularly daft!

Now whether you’re a Christian, and I suspect most of my readers are, or not it seems that there is a common understanding that we come from the same gene pool. I recently watched an interesting documentary on DNA which had linked the maternal DNA of ALL modern humans to one woman who live about 200,000 years. This woman, know as Mitochondrial Eve, which genetics have proved existed proves what many of faith already believed that we all come from the same person. With this in mind nationalism, the idea that one race is any better than another, is demonstrably proved false. We are all related, you the reader, and I the author and everyone else you can think of, all have a common ancestor and are all therefore genetically related. The person dying from starvation in Africa, the Greeks struggling with mounting debts and the Turks recovering from an earthquake are all part of our global family.

Given then the fact that we are all related is it not time to look beyond our political created boundaries, put aside our national flags and national prejudices in order to better serve our cousins around the world? Whether like me you’re a Christian or whether you have your own belief systems can we not agree that nationalism is wrong and put aside our prejudices in order to help those who are worse of than ourselves?