Does a global mindset take away from observing the affairs of your own country?

Showing empathy is an important trait; it allows us to better understand each other and is an integral part in what makes us human. I have the capacity to empathize with others, for example, when I see an orphaned child, I feel pain and sadness or when I see a lost pet returned to their owner, I feel joy. In a perfect world, I would proudly hold a global mindset, where I can be invested in every country and their citizens ubiquitously, and regard us as a collective working towards a common goal. But sadly, we live in a world wrought with corruption evidenced throughout history time and time again and many times when a global superpower invests in another country’s affairs, it is riddled with financial and political stress. Although there is an argument that having a global mindset is important in cultivating a sense of responsibility to other countries, I believe that it is important to identify nationally as it is necessary to take into account the circumstances of your own nation before helping another; it is not practical to assist another while you are potentially struggling.

The groups people identify with provide us with a sense of identity and belonging; similar to how we instinctively classify different objects and use language to structure our understanding of the world, the groups we associate with help us make sense of the world and our place in it. Consequently, we feel an inclination to expand and elevate the standing of our respective groups as a way of giving back to the group that provided a sense of belonging. This is why it is very frequent to see why people wear the jersey of their favorite football team and cheer loudly when their team scores a touchdown or intercepts a pass. No matter how small, this makes up part of our identity and we want parts of our identity to flourish. The same concept can be applied to our respective countries, where we want them to be seen in an elevated light.

Now that I have described the definition of a national identity and how patriotism ties into our desire to maximize the status of our respective countries, I want to elaborate on why it is important to look at the affairs of one’s own country before others. Let us examine the Vietnam War as an example. After going through the Great Depression in the 1930’s and carrying the financial burden of participating in WW2, economically, the United States were doing poorly with the unemployment rate dropping to 10%, the overall cost spent accumulating to 4.1 trillion dollars, and the financial deficit of the war which put the US into significant debt (Norwich University). Post WW2, the US had a strong recovery, cementing itself as a global superpower and held significant global influence in economics, politics, and technology. But the US was still crippled with debt and the citizens were still trying to adjust to new circumstances and not even 2 years later, the US participated in the Cold War, the most notable being the Vietnam War. I understand the reasoning as to why the US wanted to participate in this war with the domino effect, where if one country fell to communism, neighboring ones would follow suit, and how it has been demonstrated in Eastern Europe which led to WW2; communism threatens America’s way of life and many citizens believed that fighting in this war was in the national interest. Communism was threatening free governments across the globe and any sign of non-intervention from the United States might encourage revolutions elsewhere. As the war dragged on with the accumulation of economic cost and mounting casualties, it seems as though the US went through a setback in opposition to the progress made post WW2. Many opposed the war on moral and economic grounds. Ho Chi Minh was the most popular leader in all of Vietnam, and the United States was supporting an undemocratic, corrupt military regime in South Vietnam. Innocent Vietnamese peasants were being killed in the crossfire and large numbers of young American soldiers died. The defoliating chemicals such as napalm were inhumane and wrought significant environmental damage. After all these sacrifices, the US did not accomplish its initial goal with Vietnam falling to communism anyway.

Having a national identity allowed the US to win against what seemed like impossible odds, during the American Revolution, no one would expect a group of immigrants to win against Great Britain, a global superpower at the time, even with foreign assistance. It allows for people to work cohesively towards the achievement of a goal. The Vietnam war lacked that backing and made it difficult to win a long, protracted war. Like I said earlier, in an ideal world, I would love to hold a global mindset, but look at the Vietnam War; the leader of the government the US funded was corrupt, rigging elections, holding land and money to himself, executing those who opposed him without a second thought. On paper, the narrative behind why the US participated in the war is not necessarily wrong and that is why it had such popular support in the beginning but lost it after the economic cost and moralities of the war came to light.

Some might say that being overly nationalistic can lead to xenophobia evidenced through examples such as the Holocaust. This is true, but like anything, an excess or lack of it has the potential to have devastating effects. There is also a distinct difference between nationalism and patriotism of which both are a result of a national identity. Nationalism is more akin to saying “we are superior to everyone else” whereas patriotism is more so the idea that “we are great.” The essence of patriotism is just being prideful of your group and nationalism is coming at an angle specifically pointing toward superiority over other countries. People tend to associate nationalism with a negative connotation, for example, by associating it with Nazi Germany as opposed to patriotism which is something everyone should possess as a virtue. However, opposing arguments are also right in that being patriotic should not take away from being empathetic towards other countries. I never argued against that, I simply think that before looking towards helping other countries, to observe your own country first; how can you save or help someone else if you cannot do those things for yourself?

With the growing interconnectedness across the globe, topics such as this have become increasingly important. It is a great thing to be more interconnected and have a global imaginary but before we identify globally, we need to examine our current circumstances, which vary from country to country. Only after we have sufficient ways to fix these problems such as racism, xenophobia, different political philosophies, etc. should we look towards a global identity; where you reside should come first.