Jordan Peterson talks a lot about the Western archetypal story of the young man who goes on a quest to slay the dragon.
To Peterson, one of the things that dragon represents is nationalism, which he places under the category of collectivism. He wants to keep nationalism dormant because he has not broken out of the socialist conditioning which tells us that nationalism brings destruction.
Yet nationalism is simply an embrace of our natural state, an embrace of who we are, and an expression of love for the people with whom we share the closest biological connections. It is diametrically opposed to socialist collectivism, which imposes artificial bonds of connection and artificial rules of engagement. These artificial constructs inherent in socialism are why socialist systems collapse, and why socialist governments brutalise their subjects to force them to conform to an imposed unreality.
The power of this natural state which is nationalism is that we are bilogically predisposed to respond to it. Nationalism stirs the core of our being because it connects us to other people like us and lets us be a part of something bigger than ourselves. It is why we go nuts for the World Cup and Donald Trump, and it is why leftists are so jealous of nationalism’s power.
If nationalism is the dragon, I don’t want to slay it. I want to yell in its ear.
Photo by Baltasar Vischi 