Some argue that patriotism is the primary cause of wars globally. Others feel that it serves to prevent less ethical politicians from running a country and starting wars. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Some believe that showing love towards a country leads to wars, whereas others strongly feel the act of patriotism shows the ethics and love for a country, and makes its progress possible. I will analyze both the views and share my plausible opinion.
Many allege that national affiliation is the primary cause of aggressive behaviour, which creates differences between people of different nations, leading to disputes, and eventually, violent altercations. To exemplify, throughout history wars have taken place because of this, especially world war one and world war two which caused loss of millions of human life, simply because people of every nation or kingdom caught that their race or superior to others.
However, the true concept of patriotism always benefits the country in several ways. The citizens of the country ensure better working, act ethically, and dedicate their time, energy and other resources for helping develop their society. For instance, countries like Japan,Russia and Germany, were able to develop themselves rapidly even after suffering enormous damage to cities and industries because their populations were highly devoted to the national cause, and today, they are among the richest nations.
Similarly, patriotic citizens always ensure that policy makers provide transparent governance, that is why they always participate in every governmental exercise: elections, policy making and implementation. They always ensure only honest people enter the parliament and render selfless services. For example, people in Denmark forced their regime to include referendums in their constitution and use this privilege to exhibit their acceptance or rejections of policies.
In hindsight, even though they have been worse because of patriotic fervor in the past, the feeling of nationalism has always acted as a medium that brings dedication and love for the country and ensures team governance.