Radical Nationalism & the Demonization of Others (Book Notes: America Right Or Wrong)

Americans frequently and repeatedly through history view their nation as a vehicle of liberation and democratization of others in the world. It's a messianic vision of America which is sometimes secular in nature and sometimes combined with explicit Christian doctrine. What happens, though, when others decline to be 'liberated' by America?

In America Right Or Wrong: An Anatomy Of American Nationalism, Anatol Lieven writes:

[W]hat if the peoples ... are unwilling to incapable of accepting ... liberation? In a pattern familiar to all students of the missionary tradition and mentality, this attitude can all too easily slip into an aggressive, chauvinist and ultimately even racist contempt for such peoples. This tendency is fed enormously by the very strong currents of ethnoreligious nationalism which exist in American life alongside American civic nationalism.

After all, if the Message is self-evidently true, universal and universally apprehendable, then any failure cannot be due to the Message. It must be due to some failure on the part of the audience, whether because of innate wickedness or because its collective heart has been hardened by some wicked agents: manipulating nationalist elites, former communists, emissaries of Satan...

To assert the unique morality of the political culture of one’s country is already to adopt a position which the rest of the world will find very difficult to accept and will be strongly tempted to challenge by reference to the darker episodes of one’s past — thereby setting off ugly national exchanges. To assert this and then derive from it, as have William Kristol and Robert Kagan, the belief that America’s “moral goals and its fundamental national interests are almost always in harmony” is to come rather close to saying “my country is always right.”

Even worse, such attitudes also come close to saying “therefore, we’ll impose ourselves on you for your own good — and if you can’t tell that we’re always right, that just goes to show how desperately you need our help.” It’s difficult enough for individuals to acknowledge that they might be wrong and that others may justifiably go about things in a different way; collectively as part of a nationalist political movement, such acknowledgments are perhaps impossible.

The demonization of others may be a strong indicator that we’re dealing with someone who has completely bought into radical nationalism and the idea that America — or at least their vision of America — is always right. Others who disagree aren’t merely mistaken, they are agents for some larger conspiracy against America. Oftimes, they are literally demonic in nature because overt Christianism is combined with American nationalism.

People like this aren’t interested in the normal political process of negotiation, compromise, and working out differences with civic, political equals who have different ideas about how society should function. Domination and control are their goals because they are absolutely convinced of the Truth of their Message as well as the Righteousness of their Cause. What possible value could there be in compromising with lesser binges who don’t have Truth or Righteousness on their side?

 

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