Nationality and Patriotism

Nationality and Patriotism

  • Submitted By: 6one9
  • Date Submitted: 02/08/2009 2:03 PM
  • Category: Miscellaneous
  • Words: 2332
  • Page: 10
  • Views: 1250

Nationalism what does it mean? What effects has it or does it have on sport, in particular New Zealand and Australian sport. Has it affected our national sporting identities? Nationalism can be split into two distinct, but at the same, similar categories, “old” and “new”. As citizens of a nation state we can sometimes get over excited, emotional, and lost in the moment when it comes to our sporting teams. Their success is our success, but their loss is the nation’s loss, people will morn the loss of a major sporting event nearly as much as they morn the loss of a loved one. The following essay is going to breakdown these questions and relate them back to a New Zealand and Australian sporting context using rugby, rugby league as examples and give an understanding of how sport has helped shaped national identity.

The term nationalism can be viewed as the amalgamation of two very distinct words, nationality and patriotism. (Hayes, 1926) If we take these two terms we can come up with a relatively brief description of the term nationalism. It can mean ones love of their country, their loyalty, but the main premise for this essay will be one of a common culture. “Culture refers to the customs, practices, languages, values and world views that define social groups such as those based on nationality, ethnicity, region or common interests”.(www.socialreport.msd.govt.nz). Using this definition nationalism can be interpreted as a nation of peoples sharing the same culture a common culture, we can further deconstruct this to mean the working class people.

The working class people of this world are the players whom assimilate into this notion of a common culture. They work hard and play hard. Sport was and is used as a means to get away from their mundane lives of factory work, and sometimes just the stress of life in general. One could say that sport can give a person a sense of worth, self belief or even a sense of belonging. These people do not even...

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