A Parable about Alarms

Many years ago, I spent a few nights in a hostel on the outer edge of Edinburgh, Scotland. I was there alone, but had a great time exploring the city by day and then resting in my little cubby in a shared room at night.

On my third or fourth night, an alarm went off in the building. I got up, grabbed my purse, put on shoes, and immediately went out the nearest exit, heading down to the bank of the small river behind the building. I waited at the far end of the lawn, alone for several minutes before the alarm stopped sounding. No one else came out at all.

When I walked around the front of the building and was let back inside, I asked what happened. “Oh, the alarm does that sometimes,” I was told. “It’s no big deal.”

I was confused, “But what would have happened if there had been a problem?”

I was assured that everything would have been fine. There was nothing to worry about. Just go back to sleep. 

While this probably seemed like nothing to them, it was a big deal to me. I was only a few years out of college, which I attended in North Carolina. In my high school years, two different colleges in NC had residential building fires in which students died. By the time I was in college, fire drills for dorms were mandatory and frequent. In my school, the drills were timed. The building had to be emptied in less than three minutes. Alarms in buildings were (and are) something serious to me.

Yet, here I was in a different country having a very different experience. Yes, there was an alarm, but no one was alarmed. And my experience wasn’t meaningful to the people  in front of me. And since it wasn’t known or meaningful to them, they weren’t able to tell me what would happen if there was an actual problem. 

What is the point of this story? 

There are currently a lot of alarms sounding. Alarms about violated laws and norms. Alarms about vulnerable people and populations. Alarms about harm being done- publicly and in secret.

Some people are ignoring the alarms. Some people are dancing to them, like music. Some people are trying to shout over them and trying to bring attention to them. Some people are saying this just happens sometimes.

All I know is this: an ignored alarm is not the same as a false alarm. It’s better to check what’s happening and take it seriously, than to act like it’s nothing. There is almost always some action that needs to be taken. Talk to other people as well. Which alarms are they hearing and what is their experience with alarms? Everything is not fine.

Alarm bells are ringing. How are you responding?

Patriotism vs. Nationalism

There is a lot of current conversation using the words patriotism and nationalism as though they were interchangeable phrases or concepts. Historically, they have not been interchangeable and I would argue they’re not today either. 

Patriotism and nationalism differ in the areas of unity vs. uniformity, reflection, and expectation around improvement. They both reflect a love of country and a pride in home and aspects of history. One is more willing to embrace truth-telling than the other. 

With regard to unity vs. uniformity, nationalism seeks the latter. Most nationalist movements have a concept of the “ideal” citizen in terms of race, religion, and/or political ideology. In the beginning of most nationalist movements, this is the “quiet” part. Leaders of the movement don’t necessarily specify these preferred expressions because they need everyone to be “all in” in order to achieve power. Eventually, though, the truth will out. Look to who speaks for the group most often and most publicly. Do not look for tokens, but for the most regular way of being. There are always early signs of the expectation of uniformity. 

Healthy patriotism seeks unity. This can be difficult to achieve because it involves listening, compromise, sharing of power and resources, and the pursuit of goals in common. An effort toward unity requires work that not everyone wants to do because it can be slow. Reciprocity and careful communication are required. Progress can be made. Within some of the greatest historical movements, there have always been tensions among leaders, but the change happened in the struggle for unity on the things that mattered most to the most. 

Patriotism allows and encourages reflection on history - celebrating victories and movements and learning from failures and losses. This reflection is not a blame game, but a chance to see the multi-sided truth of what happened, who was harmed, who benefitted, and how we got to where we are. This can be hard and, sometimes, painful work. Patriotism, as a deep love of country, sees it as necessary to continue to grow and to achieve the dreams of all who call a place home. 

Nationalism turns away from deep reflection. The narrow way of this mindset does not allow for the space to consider multiple viewpoints. In fact, integration of a variety of viewpoints would conflict with the preference for uniformity. Nationalism wants us all to accept the stated narrative, without consideration of additional information or experience. Even when a historical consideration is generally considered objectively harmful, the door to additional reflection is often shut to prevent “stirring up trouble” or bringing up things that are “over”. 

Finally, a patriot loves their country enough to be truthful about room for improvement. Accepting that the work will be on-going and sometimes tough, patriotism knows that the dreams continue and the effort to reach the mountaintop carries on. Patriotism can simultaneously recognize sacrifice and dedication AND expect moral deliberation and a pursuit of justice and liberty for all. No patriot would ever see these as mutually exclusive. 

Nationalism loves power. The strong fist, the weapon, the rules (written and unwritten) are the tools that keep those who would stray out of line with the vision of the future. Obedience has a high value and questions are viewed as the gateway to disobedience. In history, nationalist movements are known for having redefined common terms, for creating outgroups and scapegoats, and for shifting the settled laws and norms of the land, both inside and outside of legal channels. Viewed through the lens of history, nationalist movements often look like cults, but we rarely use that term because of the scope of their work in government(s). 

Patriotism and nationalism are not the same. They don’t have the same goals and they don’t show up in the world in the same way. There are many ways of defining them, but even if you use my basic definitions you should be able to tell them apart.

Here’s a story about my kid, both to illustrate a point and because I’m proud of him. My teen runs cross-country. In a recent race, he sacrificed the opportunity to improve his personal record or event experience to pace a teammate. This meant running with the teammate to help him qualify for state competition. The sacrifice meant having a full team to go to state competition and an improved time for the teammate, if a slower time in one race for my son. 

Patriotism is loving your team (country) enough to know that sometimes you will be called upon to sacrifice some for the good of the whole. It means wanting everyone to make it to the finish and to the next thing. It means telling the truth about what has to be done, what will work, what doesn’t work, and celebrating together. Both the individual AND the team matter. 

Patriotism wants us all to thrive as a team. Nationalism only wants certain of us on the podium. Don’t get them confused.