America’s Nationalism shown in the World Cup has reached a record high. More and more citizens are becoming increasingly interested in the outcome of the World Cup. To ask what Nationalism is and how it appears is such a broad question; to narrow it down to say, a worldwide sporting event and how it affects the history of nations around the world, is another question.
When you think of a worldwide sporting event, what do you think of, the Olympics or the World Cup? When you think of Nationalism, what sport do you think of, football, baseball, or soccer. Every other country other than the United States has die-hard fans involving the World Cup. If you watch the World Cup and you might see the relationship between Nationalism and patriotism.
Countries from all over the world, no matter how economically stable their nation is, no matter whether or not they are at war or peace, compete in this tournament. Two countries could potentially be at war with each other and at the same time be playing a game of football against each other in a stadium full of millions of people. In the Bloggingheads video, the correlation between Nationalism and The World Cup is compared between Bryan Curtis and Eve Fairbanks.
So how does this affect Nationalism? If one country is at war with another, does that mean that they have to play fair and act civilized on the field? Or will their hatred for their opponents come out in the game? Or maybe it will come out after the game when everybody is out on their own. All three of these scenarios have happened, all three have their own examples.
For instance, the USA, the United Kingdom and France have all been at war with Iraq and stationed in Iran for the past few years. Yet they were expected to put that aside and play football on an open field, filmed so the world could watch, and viewed by a million or so people sitting in the stands. Although the US is not as involved in soccer as other nations around the world, many people’s feelings of Nationalism came out when we played against the Middle Eastern teams.
How could we be civil to the people who’s country attacked ours on 9/11? The feelings of patriotism of the citizens of North America skyrocketed. Flags were raised on houses, flags were put up around businesses, and more Americans gathered together to watch the World Cup on television and cheer for their country.
In the past the US hasn’t been nearly as interested in supporting our team. This is one example of how events like the World Cup can bring out Nationalism. However, this situation can be reversed. Take the United States as an example yet again. We are a diverse country. We have people of all different cultures, races and creeds. This is something that most other countries do not have, they do not share in our diversity. This means that although many Americans were gathering together to cheer for the US against the Middle East and other nations, many Middle Eastern people living in America were rooting for their own homeland’s team. These feelings of pride and animosity create rivalries and problems. In a time when the political stability is so strained, is it irresponsible to have two warring countries face each other in the World Cup?
I like that you come up with examples of how peace can reign on the field even during combat operations between countries, and I like to see more how you think we SHOULD act rather than how we DO act.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that other countries are not as diverse as us. Many countries are quite diverse since the advent of globalism. Of course, it all depends on how you measure diversity.
I'd like to hear the answer of your last question. I would think it could either calm tensions or inflame them. Could you imagine us playing Germany during WWII?