Nationalism: Division in Unity

While bearing the status as a language that unites the world, English has some drawbacks. As ‘we’ reflects the impression of integrality between many people, it brings an image of robustness and is more convincing than ‘I’. ‘We’ is often mentioned hundreds of thousands of times by numerous leaders to drive public trust to anything they have to say, when in a particular context, ‘we’ is exclusive – it doesn’t always refer to nor involve individuals they are talking to.

In English, we (subject) and us (object) are plural third-person pronouns that come in handy when it comes to public concentration purposes; thanks to their exclusivity and inclusivity stretchiness. As an American president (for example) speaks before a United Nations summit affirming the urgency of condemning Russia's military operation in Ukraine, he might be saying, “’We’ condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine,” while ‘we’ does not represent the entire UN member states contextually.

The percentage of people who earn living in the language field  are low in numbers compared to the world’s population, perhaps even lower if avant-garde Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reached a point that enables it to speak multiple languages fluently. Regardless of any upcoming progress after us, language remains a bridge to knit connections with those outside of ourselves. Language has given shape to everything that comes out and comes into us; which in turn plays the role of a tool to build a better life. While Subcomandante Marcos said, “our word is our weapon,” language is military as both have tight restrictions and prohibitions.

A root of language discrimination

Some Muslim-majority countries seem shy to respond to the wave of Iran mass protests that have been heating up since end of September 2022, probably because they assume such a movement is a harsh criticism against Islam sharia. The root of the civil unrest is actually beyond religious matters, albeit sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini (22) when she was under Iran’s morality police arrest for not wearing a headscarf in compliance with the rules. Cultural and language inequality and discrimination against a particular ethnic group in West Asia is the fire in the husk that burns the Persian atmosphere these days.

Once upon a time, Hasanwayhid, Annazid, and Ayyubid dynasties were the greatest Kurdish rulers of their times; unfortunately, the tribe suffered ceaseless persecution in the modern days. Ill fate of the Kurds began in 1920 following the collapse of Türkiye’s Ottoman Empire, the final outcome of World War I. Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, Türkiye’s president at the time, rejected Treaty of Sevres clause on the formation of special autonomous region for pre-WWI Ottoman Kurdish people.

Long story short, Treaty of Lausanne (1923) was initiated as a response to Türkiye’s objection and ruled out any utterance of home for the Kurds. Consequently, a large number of Kurds drifted away to four countries (Iran, Iraq, Türkiye, and Syria) while keep fighting for their autonomous region. Such demand, however, was not only expressed through demonstrations. Terrorism acts have been the color of their struggles on several occasions, by and large, after a prominent Kurdish figure, Abdullah Öcalan, declared the formation of Marxist-Leninist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 1978. PKK, as well as its members and partisans, have been designated as a terrorist group by many countries, including European Union and Türkiye.

Persian (Farsi) has been ruled in as Iran’s national language for decades as to replace languages of sub-ethnic minorities, such as Kurds, Khuzestan Arabs, Azerbaijan Turks, Turkmenistan, and Balochistan. Under the Islamic Republic of Iran, minority local languages perceived as obsolete, and outdated; hence, a restriction to learning and teaching local/minority languages at schools placed. Breaking this rule means heavy punishment and imprisonment. Did you ever assume this phenomenon is an excess of Shiite Islam versus Sunni Islam eternal rivalry? Beware! Don’t let religious sentiment obscure your horizon.

Terrorism is nothing like fast food; there are always long stories behind a terrorist’s decision to walk down a dark path. On the understanding that every human on Earth needs concession for their existence, a language ban means cultural discrimination; you might be deprived of the right to exist in this world when somebody denounces your culture. Due to the fact that culture is the product of people’s will to create, sense, and initiate, cultural discrimination equals a slow bloodless genocide of their intellectuality.

Fear of getting sick effect

2023 trend forecast by a JPMorgan analyst read, deglobalization is going on an uptrend during the year. Deglobalization here means the West ceases to be the mecca in economic development. JPMorgan is, for sure, not a psychic who looks through the crystal ball and proclaims his prophecy out of thin air as he gazes into the future. Such prediction that solely relied on logic and plentiful events during 2022, sounded like a mega-class business pessimism about the current state of developed (West) nations' domination over developing (East) ones.

Global 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns got our eyes opened that total isolation couldn’t safeguard humans from the plague, as viruses and bacteria are always able to locate the tiniest cracks to infiltrate and gnaw at their immunity. Those who have been ill, either physically or psychologically, since before the virus got in were easy targets for COVID-19. This was like a veiled lesson about a phenomenon when disease and sadness went savage following the transmission of an outsider matter with aim to end one’s life. As reported by some pandemic stories it was lockdowns, instead of virus, that severed the sickness of patients and their families.

JPMorgan analyst’s prediction above seems to signal that global lockdowns may return anytime shortly for different purposes. Lockdown is currently pressed on Russia with 6800 sanctions, also international isolation, as “punishments” for its ongoing military operation in Ukraine. Will the most massive lockdowns against a nation succeed preserving other nations’ safety? Who plays the role of the deadly disease in this drama, does it Russia or the nations who put the pressure on it?

The Kurds' post-WWI tales and Russians in Ukraine are no different; they are the remains of glorious pasts. As the heyday ended, the supposed people to rely on and protect from succumbed to personal or faction interests, and outside pressures. We could not ask Attaturk why he rejected approval of the designated establishment of the Kurds autonomous region. But we can still ask the Western press why they avoided exposing anything meaningful on discrimination against Russian language and culture in Ukraine with similar degree of details. It’s hardly believable if such a cold-shoulder response excuse due to the fear of communism virus, though, since a few hardcore democracy countries like Sweden, Germany, and France used to and still shelter more than a few PKK members that were once under the influence of Leninism somewhere in their phase of life.

Nationalism is love?

Nationalism is an alias for love for the motherland, often used nowadays to express calls to prioritize local products, state interests, or country-wide fair and equitable development. Homogenous states on day one they were born unlikely to face critical issues to uniting their citizens. Given that they are talking and behaving in compliance with a specific standard, authorities know exactly what they need, and are (supposedly) confident in driving the country’s ship toward common goals as one nation.

A legion of us long for the past, for the reason that it was simpler than today. The good news is a bunch of nationalist leaders nod their heads and can relate with us on this yearning. With globalization and an era of openness, it was easier for people to roam the world, physically or virtually, from cross regions to cross countries. Human aliens get into our lives, bringing their customs, culture, and values respectively, impressing us with their unforgettable uniqueness. Alien viruses mesmerize, screw up the homogenous society’s mindset and behaviors, and are the authorities’ headache altogether.

With that being said, heterogenous society swings in a completely different challenge. Iran makes Farsi the official language as a part of the cultural standard that tends to neglect the minority languages. Is there no other solution for it? Only its authorities know the answer. Compulsory enforced standard enactment was not only in Iran, for real. A living witness (now deceased) once involved in and confessed to a movement of religious homogeneousness in an Indonesian remote island years ago, when people there were obliged to leave their local religion and must convert to Islam, Protestant Christianity, or Catholicism. Such standard enactment was then a policy to unite heterogeneous people further by getting rid of diversity.

It was almost effortless to unify tribes, races, ethnicities, and religions during war, since they had one common goal defeating the enemy and, like it or not, they must thrive and work together. But a perfect life is a hidden test – troubles came for them when the goal reached. Men (and women) are hardly ever satisfied, they will keep evolving for the best of life. Nevertheless, the ideal life standard is never the same for each of us. The unity loses its strength, weakened by the collided interests – therefore, diversity has to be nullified. So, is nationalism love?