21 Lessons for the 21st Century

by Yuval Noah Harari

For nationalism has two parts to it, one easy, the other very difficult. The easy part is to prefer people-like-us over foreigners. Humans have been doing that for millions of years. Xenophobia is in our DNA. The hard part of nationalism is to sometimes prefer strangers over friends and relatives. For example, a good patriot pays his taxes honestly, so that unknown children on the other side of the country will get good national healthcare, even if that means that he cannot treat his own kids in an expensive private hospital. Similarly, a patriotic official gives lucrative jobs to the most qualified applicants rather than to his own brothers and cousins. This goes against millions of years of evolution. Tax evasion and nepotism come naturally to us, but nationalism says they are “corruption.” In order to make people renounce such corruption and put national interests before family connections, nations had to create a mammoth apparatus of education, propaganda, and flag waving, as well as national systems of health, security, and welfare.