National Competition, Global Advance
“Global village” is a word earning great popularity in recent times. Traveling to another country today is as easy as visiting cousins in another village in the old time. Also, trading with foreigners is a routine for businessmen with international banks and global transportations. Naturally, people start to question the meaning of national identity: as people all around the world share such a tight connection, why do people have to stick to their national identities? What is the unique quality nationality can offer people while global identity cannot? National pride is a valuable gift from national identity. Although some people believe that global identity works better than national identity to achieve global improvement with global perspectives, national identity plays a great role in global advancement because national identity cultivates national pride, which encourages people to contribute to the world in the form of the national competition.
Admittedly, in many people’s minds, nationalism is a synonym of selfishness. It seems like patriots never care about the world or other people because they only concentrate on their self-interests. However, the true story is the opposite. Selfishness is an individual-oriented motivation. Selfish people do not care or think about others as long as they have reached the maximum interests. Nationalism, on the other side, is nation-oriented. In other words, nationalists put their nations as the priority. As a result, nationalism always breeds collectivism: a culture that people seek collectivistic goals rather than personal interests. For patriots, personal interests are not essential compared to collectivistic goals. Therefore, nationalists are ready to sacrifice their personal interests to achieve collectivistic goals, which are beneficial for everyone in the nation. Hence, nationalism and selfishness are not synonyms but opponents. Nationalism wants WE to achieve OUR goals, while selfishness wants ME to achieve MY goals.
Global identity is a popular topic, especially in college education. To be honest, I believe that global identity is an appropriate product of globalization. With the awareness of global situations and events, global identity helps people, especially youth, fit into the global culture well. Of course, many people believe that global identity is the key for different people to collaborate and improve the global environment. National identity, however, also works well for people to collaborate and achieve global advance. “National identity and global advance? Sounds not intuitive.” Many of you must be confused about the statement. Here is the explanation about the mysterious friendship between national identity and global advance.
National pride is the bridge between national identity and global advance. Specifically, national pride can be explained by a social psychological term: Social Identity Theory. According to the theory, people’s identification of themselves is partly derived from their membership in groups (Mcleod). In other words, if the group is successful, it is helpful for members to elevate their self-esteem. If the group fails, however, it hurts member’s feelings and their identification with themselves. Consider a nation as a group, and national identity is such a membership combined with personal identification. Thus, people with national identity are naturally motivated to help their countries gain success internationally, which further protects their national pride and self-esteem as a member. Therefore, people who stick with national identity are more likely to protect their national pride by contributing to the world and helping their country gain success.
For instance, Tu Youyou, a Chinese pharmacologist, gained a Nobel Award for Physiology by discovering effective substances to cure malaria. What worth noticing, Tu applied her knowledge in traditional Chinese medicine to extract the substance in Chinese herb medicine. Before Tu Youyou, traditional Chinese medicine was underestimated by many professionals. These professionals thought that Western medicine theory was science, while traditional Chinese medicine had no scientific foundation. Tu Youyou studied traditional Chinese medicine for many years, and her discovery protected the fame of Chinese medicine. In fact, it was the first time traditional Chinese medicine was accepted and appraised on such a large scale. Tu Youyou’s motivation, hence, is largely based on protecting traditional Chinese medicine and proving its value. Even though there are few global perspectives on Tu’s motivation, Tu still makes a great contribution to the world by addressing the malaria issues for people all around the world.
Granted, national pride is different in various countries. For developed countries, specifically, people with national identity want to keep the top positions in international society, which drives them to contribute to the world in a leader position. For example, the United States has led the international society for years. It is natural that people who identify themselves as Americans take the responsibility to lead the world and help poor people in other countries. This responsibility is probably derived from their self-identification as Americans, people who are supposed to help others as a leader. On the other hand, developing countries seek respect and fame in such a new international society. Therefore, national citizens in developing countries protect their national pride by trying to handle the top position and promote in developed countries list.
As a result, national competition forms between developing countries and developed countries. All countries want to handle the limited top positions in the international society. In such a competition, people with national identity work to make a great contribution to the world and earn fame for their countries. Although national citizens have a competitive relationship, they collaborate at some level to make the world a better place by addressing global issues.
Of course, extreme national pride can trigger some problems. For developed countries, the responsibility of leadership could make them ignore the importance of cooperation: developed countries believe that they can address issues all on their own. For instance, in 2020, Trump announced that the United States would leave WHO because WHO did not respond to the pandemic as the United States expected. In other words, as the United States fails to hold absolute leadership, the United States is reluctant to transit the leadership to other countries or world organizations. The national pride for absolute responsibility may hurt global collaboration during special periods, like this pandemic.
On the other hand, national pride can be harmful to developing countries, too. As extreme national pride grows among people in developing countries, people may refuse to accept other cultures and cultivate open minds. For these patriots, being open minds is a betrayal to their countries. There is a situation in China. As China develops rapidly, people are more and more confident in Chinese culture, which is beneficial first. However, as the cultural confidence grows, some people believe that learning other cultures is unnecessary: Chinese culture itself is enough for them. As a result, in recent years, some people state that Chinese people should not celebrate Western festivals, such as Christmas. If a Chinese person celebrates Western festivals, it is a betrayal to China. In this case, although national pride offers some people cultural confidence internationally, it also impedes them from understanding the world and other cultures.
National identity never means selflessness. As a national citizen, it is natural to contribute to the world to protect national pride. To the world, national citizens are patriots; to the country, however, national citizens serve as the bridge connected to the whole world.
References
Hu, Shuli. Caixin, 8 June 2016, www.caixinglobal.com/2016-06-08/china-us-relations-hostage-to-none-101010416.html.
Mcleod, Saul. Social Identity Theory. 1 Jan. 1970, www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html.
Nicola, Luca. “TU YOUYOU, THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR HER WORK ON MALARIA.” IBSA Foundation, 13 Dec. 2020, www.ibsafoundation.org/tu-youyou-the-nobel-prize-for-her-work-on-malaria/.
