Nationalism vs. Globalism: Beyond Borders and Myths

Ryan Haylett

Alright, so let’s talk about nationalism. On the surface, it sounds good, right? Pride in your country, wanting to stand up for your roots... but the thing is, it doesn’t always stay that way.

Ryan Haylett

It often shifts into something a lot darker. Something a lot more dangerous.

Ryan Haylett

Take the United States after 9/11, for example. In the days and weeks after the attacks, the language was all about unity.

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You know, the whole “we’re in this together” vibe.

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But pretty quickly, that unity turned into surveillance, racial profiling, and exclusionary policies. It became less about protecting Americans and more about controlling them — especially if you didn’t fit this image of what an “American” should look like.

Ryan Haylett

And we see this myth of the so-called “Real Americans” play out in so many ways. Look at immigrants, dissenters, or even the poor. Nationalism draws this imaginary circle, and anyone outside of it? They’re considered a threat. Not part of the team. The idea has always been, “You’re either with us, or you’re against us.” And what happens to the people left out of that circle? They get dehumanized. Left out in the cold.

Ryan Haylett

Fast forward to January 6th. That was a real flashpoint. We’ve all seen the footage, heard the chants, felt the chaos.

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It wasn’t just a riot; it was an intentional attack from an egotistical cry-baby fueled by this idea that

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“America belongs to us, not them”.

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It’s not just about what happens inside one country, though. Nationalist ideologies don’t stay boxed in. They spill over. They export themselves—sometimes as war, sometimes as propaganda.

Ryan Haylett

Let’s look at Gaza, for instance. Extreme nationalist Zionism has justified erasure. Civilian casualties? They get rebranded as, what’s the phrase, collateral damage. And if you point that out? You’re a traitor, you’re labeled antisemitic, you’re the problem. The thing is, nationalism becomes a shield for state violence. The state starts being seen as untouchable, infallible, even when it’s crossing every ethical line.

Ryan Haylett

And it’s not just there. Look at Japan. You’ve got this historical revisionism popping up in schools—teaching kids a softer, sanitized version of what happened during World War II. The atrocities, the violence, they’re kinda brushed aside. And alongside that, you’ve got a rising resistance to multiculturalism, a push against immigration, and this desire to amp up militarization — all under the banner of, you guessed it, nationalist pride.

Ryan Haylett

And honestly? It’s not unique to these countries. India, Turkey, Hungary... You name it, and you’ll see similar patterns: Populist leaders fanning the flames of nationalism, targeting minorities, tightening their grip on power. Because, here’s the thing — nationalism sells itself as protection: heritage! safety! tradition! But when that protection becomes preemptive, absolute... yeah, it stops being about people and starts being about consolidating power.

Ryan Haylett

At the core of it all, nationalism tries to convince you that everyone outside its imaginary lines is less human. Less worthy. And that, right there? That’s where things start to collapse.

Ryan Haylett

Alright, now let’s talk about globalism. It’s sold as this big, shiny promise: progress, peace, prosperity—you name it. But, you know, when we scratch the surface, it gets a lot messier. Globalism, in the way it’s actually practiced, tends to concentrate power at the top while erasing autonomy and exploiting labor, especially in places that already have the least.

Ryan Haylett

Look back at NAFTA and the offshoring boom. The pitch was that lifting trade barriers would make everyone richer.

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And sure, big corporations, they made a killing. But for a ton of American labor towns? It was devastating.

Ryan Haylett

Factories closed, jobs disappeared, and whole communities were left... left struggling to even stay afloat. The winners got richer—and the folks who were supposed to benefit? Yeah, they got left behind.

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And it’s not just about jobs. Think about the Global South. You’ve got IMF austerity programs that were packaged as ‘global cooperation,’ but in reality? They forced cuts to healthcare, to education, to the very basics people rely on. So, these communities, they end up paying the price—literally—so wealthier nations can play economic puppet master.

Ryan Haylett

Then there’s the labor exploitation. Sweatshops in Bangladesh, Vietnam, wherever—these places crank out the clothes, the tech, the stuff we all buy every day. For rock-bottom wages, under terrible conditions. But the profits? They flow straight back to CEOs, to shareholders, to anyone but the workers actually making the products.

Ryan Haylett

And the hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. Climate change—a perfect example. Corporations, especially the big global players, they push their pollution to countries with weaker regulations. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Ryan Haylett

So here’s the deal:

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they talk about cutting emissions and saving the planet, but it’s someone else’s sky, someone else’s backyard, that ends up choking on the fallout.

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And let’s not forget about tech giants. I mean, the internet was supposed to be this great equalizer, right? A borderless world where everyone gets an equal voice. But, yeah, not really. Companies like Google, Meta, Amazon—they’ve turned that dream into outright dominance. It’s their game, their rules. And most of us, we just... play along.

Ryan Haylett

So, globalism—it’s a mirage. It promises openness, but it’s really about control. And at the end of the day, the power gap gets wider, not smaller.

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So here we are: nationalism on one side, globalism on the other. And honestly, we’re stuck in this false choice, this binary that keeps getting sold to us.

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But the thing is, neither side really fixes the core issue. It’s not about flags or free markets. It’s about power.

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Who has it, and who never gets it back.

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Nationalism sells you fear, right? Fear of the outsider, fear of losing your identity,

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your culture.

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Globalism?

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It sells fear too.

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Fear of falling behind, or getting left out.

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And both of them? They thrive on keeping you scared, keeping you small,

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and dangled right in the middle of their arguments are these big promises: like heritage, safety, progress, and prosperity.

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But when you strip it down, those promises are almost always about keeping power concentrated at the top — whether it’s in a state, a corporation, or some international elite.

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What we actually need is this middle ground that isn’t about flattening differences or erasing identities.

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It’s about putting power where it belongs, closer to the people impacted by it.

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That’s the whole idea of decentralization, or subsidiarity.

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Those fancy words that basically boil down to this: decisions need to be made by the people they’re going to affect the most. Not some technocrat a thousand miles away. Not a CEO in a glass tower. Not some authoritarian leader grinning behind a podium. You and your community? You know what you need better than anyone else.

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But it doesn’t mean shutting the world out, either. That’s why I’m talking about global awareness, global empathy. You can value what’s local without pretending the rest of the world doesn’t matter.

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We’re all connected, I mean, climate change, pandemics, supply chains, whatever, those don’t give a shit about borders.

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So yeah, love your country, love your town. But make it a grounded kind of love. One that sees the flaws and works to fix them instead of just waving a flag and saying, “This is perfect, don’t touch it.”

Ryan Haylett

Civic responsibility is about looking at what you love and making it better. Criticism, when it’s honest, is care.

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And let’s talk liberty, real liberty doesn’t mean a free-for-all, and it doesn’t mean blind obedience. It means transparency. It means accountability. It means policies that actually center human needs, not just profit margins or propaganda.

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Imagine a system where decisions are made with people, not imposed on them; where power isn’t just redistributed, but actually kept in check, locally, globally, everywhere.

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So let’s move past this false choice, right? We don’t need nationalism that dehumanizes, and we don’t need globalism that exploits.

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What we need is a system that empowers people to live freely and responsibly, no matter where they are. And that starts with recognizing that these battles, these debates—they’ve never been about borders or ideologies.

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The fight has always been about power.