Notes on Nationalism

"Notes on Nationalism" is an essay completed in May 1945 by George Orwell and published in the first issue of the British "Magazine of Philosophy, Psychology, and Aesthetics" Polemic, in October 1945.

In this essay, Orwell discusses the notion of nationalism, and argues that it causes people to disregard common sense and become more ignorant towards factuality. Orwell shows his concern for the social state of Europe, and in a broader sense, the entire world, due to an increasing amount of influence of nationalistic sentiment occurring throughout a large number of countries.

The essay was soon translated into French and Dutch, Italian and Finnish (where the word nationalism was represented by chauvinisme). The article was abridged in translated versions, omitting details of particular relevance to British readers. A short introduction, based on material supplied by Orwell, preceded the translated abridgements.

Written during the final stages of World War II, at a time when Europe had only just witnessed the destructive effects of politically aligned movements, Orwell's essay uses Nazism as an example of how nationalism can not only cause havoc between groups of people, but instigate the ignorance within such groups, and compares this with other forms of nationalistic ideologies to generate an overall argument questioning the function of nationalism.

Nationalism is the name Orwell gives to the propensity of "identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests." The occurrence of nationalism is visible throughout history, and is prevalent even in today's world. Nationalism is not only defined as alignment to a political entity; it can also encompass a religion, race, ideology or any other abstract idea. Examples of such forms of nationalism given by Orwell include Communism, political Catholicism, Zionism, Anti-Semitism, Trotskyism and Pacifism. Orwell additionally argues that his definition of "nationalism" is not at all the same as what he and most people mean by "patriotism". "Patriotism is of its nature defensive… Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power." Orwell explains that he uses the expression "nationalism" for lack of a better alternative to label the concept he describes in his essay.

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