Throughout history we have many examples of conquest. Whether it be to spread Christianity or to dominate the world, many countries have taken to warlike policies, and many countries have paid the price. When a country becomes too nationalist, they develop warlike tenencies, and this over-patriotism is called jingoism. Usually, this jingoism stems from a belief that the people of a country are somehow better, or more enlightened than all the other countries, which leads the people to believe they need to conquer other nations in order to share thier enlightenment with them.
Unfortunately, world domination is not really possible, especially in this modern world, because eventually, your enemies will outnumber your allies and the people will start fighting back. But what is the result on the affected countries? Well, first of all, if and when the country fails to achieve their goals, they are usually punished by the nations it tried to take. A good example of this is how Germany was economically attacked after both of the world wars.
Second, while a country may benefit economically from the reign of a jingoist tyrannt while the tyrannt is still in power, the people's standard of living is significantly decreased because of rationing, intimidation, and reduced personal freedoms. Finally, the social and economic stress caused by war-like tendencies can create hatred, which is usually diverted by the ruler to a specific group.(The Germans diverted it to the Jews)
What is the defining factor between Jingoism and national pride?
I think the largest factor the distinguishes betweeen the two is that national pride means loving your country, while Jingoism often means hating all other countries. You don't necesarrily have to see all other peoples as evil or stupid in order to love your country. That kind of hatred can only lead to bad things.
How can the arisal of more war-loving leaders be avoided?
I think the most important and easiest way that we can avoid war like leaders is something we have already done in America. We didn't give our president the ability to declare war. Because declaring war is not the president's job, but congress', we cannot be dragged into a meaningless battle by the ambitions of one person. Although this is the case, we should still be wary of signs of aggression and should still watch our leaders very closely to make sure we keep them in check.
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Great piece of writing Kaiden! Well done!
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Until this point I had never heard of the term jingoism, so this forum post was very informative. I also completely agree with your explanation of the difference of jingoism and national pride. National pride has to do with loving your own country and what it stands for, whereas jingoism thinking all countries besides yours are below you. I do not know if war-loving leaders can be avoided, especially in countries that are not ours. We have a system of checks and ballances like you said, and that keeps the president from doing anything outrageous with our military power.
You know, it's almost a paradox, because the only way we could help other countries avoid overly ambitious leaders would be to become the very thing we seek to fight by taking control of their country. Unfortunately, the only thing we can do is take care of ourselves and make sure that we never fall into these dangerous states.
I think it would be better if all contries were National pride because than we wouldn't have to worried about to war with any other contries. I think not giving prestends the ability to declare was is the smartest and best option so that they can't abuse their power of being president.
I agree that national pride means loving your country and that jingoism means hating every other country except your own. Also that that kind of hatred could only lead to bad things. Just trying to keep peace with other countries and not automatically saying bad things about them.
In my opinion, I think that having national pride is loving your country, whille on the other hand, Jingoism means hating other countries and wanting to overcome them, out power them, and try to be better than them. I think that Jingoism shouldn't be a thing because hating another country because you think you are better than them is over all dumb.
I couldn't agree more! Especially since whether a country is better than another or not is almost totally subjective. It just doesn't make sense to say that just because you like your country, everyone else should have to also be put under your rule. Just because you love something doesn't mean everyone needs it.
I totally agree that jingoism and national pride are very different national pride doesn't mean that you are the best it just that you take pride in what you are a part of. I think it starts at a young age to teach people to respect war not create it.
I totally agree! It's important to recognize that difference, because if we think that we are totally superior to all others in all ways, we end up with hitlers that try to expand our reign, ostensibly for the purpose of spreading our prosperity to others. We need to police ourselves and our leaders to ensure that we do not end up in that situation.
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