Blind nationalism

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Blind nationalism is extreme nationalism such as Nazism, Fascism and chauvinism. It is primarily a platform for familial militarism, love of personality cults, classism, pride for national symbolism, origin and founding myths, and Saints. It is similar to the disdain in expansionist nationalism towards all foreign nations and outsiders. A noteworthy exception is many nationalists believe in peace through marriage between social groups. It is the nationalism "which does not allow the rational nature of the human mind to assert itself".^[1]

It was used to explain the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in the Interwar period, which eventually led to World War II.^[2] The term is sometimes associated with American expansionism.^[3]

The earliest known use of the phrase "blind nationalism" is in the 1908 book Racial Problems in Hungary by British historian Robert William Seton-Watson:

Needlessly to say, the attitude of the Magyar Press corresponded to that of the parliamentary Jingoes; and even the Pester Lloyd, which treated the matter with conspicuous moderation, wrote as follows: "We shall say no more of the Hlinkas and the Hodžas. These are small fry, who live upon blind nationalism, just as those amongst us who rise to honours and riches through frenzied Chauvinism. People of that sort one seizes by the collar if they break the law, and the basta."^[4]

According to David Niose, former president of the American Humanist Association:

The staggering lack of knowledge, combined with a blind and emotional patriotism, is a cause for disaster. The result is a proliferation of uninformed American exceptionalism that is akin to a social narcissism, a self-centered sense of importance and superiority that can have dire consequences."^[5]