According to the Britannica encyclopaedia, "Nationalism is an ideology that emphasizes loyalty, devotion, or allegiance to a nation or nation-state and holds that such obligations outweigh other individual or group interests."
 
Everyone has the right to feel national pride, and support the nation in its endeavours. But the question is, is nationalism really a boon or the bane in disguise?
 
Here’s some food for your thought. There are nations with extremist ideologies and motives that really question the regional stability, spreading messages of violence or terrorism.
 
Then there are nations or specifically world leaders, who use the country’s name and people’s wants to pursue their personal goals.
 
And there are nations that promote an overall feeling of hate towards other countries. Or in other words, ideas of xenophobia.
 
But all of this comes with its own consequences.
 
Referring back to violence and to country-targeting, when we spread these messages of hate, criticism and terrorism within a nation, young malleable minds of children are the first victims of extremist ideologies and it is them who will carry forward these expressions to action, in forms of protests or uprising in the future.
 
Nationalistic ideologies also bring up economic impact. When investment has a greater emphasis on implementing the ideologies such as mobilizing military or industrialization, there comes the issue of poor healthcare and education systems that lack a great sum of investment.
 
Also, expanding internationally as a start-up or a company in general becomes much more difficult with nationalistic ideologies acting as an obstacle.
 
So, what is an alternative option? 
 
Being a GLOBAL CITIZEN. If there is a crisis in some other region, I would feel like I am held accountable and that I have to play my part in solving it, through small contributions or even publicly raising awareness. It makes international outreach possible and we share ethnic cultures and traditions within the global community making it diverse.
 
Seeing yourself as a GLOBAL CITIZEN promotes the idea of peace and harmony and healing humanity as a whole.

Let us be pioneers of a better world.