Those who favor globalism, liberalism and openness need to stop dismissing nationalism and instead reclaim the term from the loud-mouthed nativists, bigots and Putin-lovers. They have to show the national interest is not advanced by empty promises of manufacturing jobs, immigration bans and ethnic homogeneity. Instead, it is best served by economic openness, international engagement by liberal democracies and reasonably liberal immigration policies. [...]
And yet, the attempts to do away with nationalism are utopian. Arguments for a cosmopolitan view of the world might be morally and intellectually compelling, but they run contrary to most people’s intuitions. To provide justification for their existence and to get through tough times, human societies — just like families, firms, or other organizations — rely on narratives that stress the bonds that tie them together. [...]
The visceral, zero-sum nationalism offered by Donald Trump or French National Front Leader Marine Le Pen offers only a nostalgia for a past that never really existed. Its chimeric proposals — of industrial jobs that are never displaced by foreign competition or technological change, stable social hierarchies, ethnic homogeneity — are the fastest route to economic stagnation and backwardness.
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