By John Mac Ghlionn
In the United States, millennials and gen Zers get a bad name. They are little more than narcissists and snowflakes, we’re told. Although I loathe the term “millennial,” I must admit that I am indeed one. Do I happen to be a narcissistic snowflake? Here, I must plead the fifth.
However, all is not lost. A new generation composed of conscientious, morally upright individuals has emerged. This generation, aptly labeled generation N, puts the concerns of their country, rather than their own, first. The “N” here stands for nationalism. Sadly, these nationalists are located in China, not the U.S.
In an intriguing piece for the South China Morning Post, Jun Mai and Amber Wang discuss these nationalists in great detail. Young and unapologetic, this generation is hyper-vocal and hyper-nationalistic. Inspired by the Chinese Communist Party, generation N are loyal disciples, staunch defenders of their country, and they don’t care who knows. In fact, they want the world to know how great China really is.
For millions of people outside of China, “nationalist” has become one of the dirtiest words imaginable. To voice one’s support for nationalist policies is to be deemed irredeemably racist. Only xenophobes and “deplorables” could ever utter it in a positive manner. The president of Germany, no doubt aware of his country’s rather controversial past, once called nationalism an “ideological poison.” It’s not. The only “poison” involves the misconceptions around nationalism.
After all, what is nationalism but one’s desire to identify with his or her own nation? It is possible to love your country without loving those in power. I’m sure many readers love the U.S. but have no intention of sending President Biden a Christmas card. By love, I don’t mean a crying John Boehner, flag-hugging kind of love. Perhaps pride is a better word. One can be proud of one’s country without being proud of its leaders.
Nationalism, by its very definition, involves loyalty to one’s nation, rather than any particular ideological group. Contrary to popular belief, nationalism, in its purest form, involves unity, rather than division. Here, it is important to differentiate between national conservatism and national populism. The latter I have little interest in discussing, as in my judgment it is low-hanging fruit, where demagoguery merges with opportunism. By emphasizing and exploiting an us versus them narrative, populists divide a nation.
National conservatism, on the other hand, is certainly worth discussing, as it seeks to promote traditional values. It appeals to the most human of qualities: the idea of traditional family values, religion, the importance of marriage, and the importance of community. With the atomization of society, all of these values are disappearing from American society. Now, everything appears to be viewed through an intersectional prism. Secular sectarianism reigns supreme. Who benefits when the U.S. is so divided? Not your average American, that’s for sure.
In the aforementioned South China Morning Post piece, Mai and Wang document the ways in which this
Via:: American Conservative

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