What is patriotism?
It is the unity of people based on citizenship.
How did patriotism arise and why is it needed?
Millions of years ago, starting from ape-like ancestors, humans have been social creatures living in packs, tribes, and clans. People realized that surviving and overcoming natural phenomena and enemies was easier together than alone. Later, they understood that even within human society, it was easier to survive and gain benefits by uniting with similar people. From those times, humans have genetically strived for unity. This led to the formation of packs, tribes, clans, and eventually states. In a state, the drive for unity transformed into the concept of patriotism.
Who benefits from patriotism?
Patriotism benefits both the state and its citizens. For rulers, patriotism is beneficial as it unites citizens to achieve state goals, such as selfless labor for the country’s good, investing money in one’s country, and conquering other peoples. Most wars in the world, as well as dictatorial regimes, have been justified by patriotism. For individual citizens, patriotism is beneficial as it mobilizes fellow citizens for labor and achievements for their common country’s good, which in turn makes the country richer, stronger, and the status of its citizens more advantageous worldwide.
Is patriotism good or evil?
Patriotism can be both good and evil. It is good as long as it mobilizes people for labor and achievements in the name of the homeland. If the mechanism works that a prosperous country means prosperous citizens, each citizen will be motivated to work for their country’s good. However, like any other phenomenon, patriotism can also be evil. Anything that brings some people closer together simultaneously distances them from others. When a person strengthens their patriotism, they get closer to their fellow citizens but further from citizens of other countries. This can lead to dislike or arrogance towards them. Therefore, patriotism is good in a certain dose, only as long as it is simply love for one’s country and has not turned into dislike for citizens of other countries.
Is it possible that in the future all countries will unite into one humanity?
In principle, theoretically, I allow for such a possibility. In the very distant future, it might be possible to create a single state, a single government for all humanity. But the problem is that it is impossible to overcome the genetic desire of humans for leadership, gaining benefits, and superiority over others. As long as this exists, even with a single state on the planet, people will still group together, if not by country, then by skin color, eye shape, social interests, and so on. People tend to unite with those similar to themselves. This automatically means separation from others. Therefore, creating a single state on Earth will not solve the problem of human division on different grounds.
Should we now make efforts to create a single state? For example, the creation of the UN and the European Union were clear steps towards a future world government. Should Kazakhs support such a movement?
In principle, yes, the path to global integration in the long term is the right one. At the very least, one reason for dividing people will disappear—the existence of different states. But until this happens, we, Kazakhs, should use our patriotism to strengthen our country and enjoy all the privileges of its power. That is, we should not be the first to lose our statehood until everyone else does. Otherwise, we will be the first to lose all its advantages, while others continue to enjoy them
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