LESSONS FOR SRI LANKA AS TRUMP,

BREXITERS RIDE NATIONALIST HATE

WAVE IN THE WEST: BELLWETHER

Image: US NATIONALISM: The Ku Klux Klan existed in the US long

before the Shiv Sena and Bodu
Bala Sena latter stages of the first wave of nationalism that swept
the world and culminated in Nazism.

By Bellwether.-15/12/2016
Nationalist hate is once again rising in the West, as shown by
Brexit and Donald Trump amid an economic downturn while Sri

Lanka is taking time off from minority bashing, but how long this
ascent to human decency will last is anybodys guess.
Already the nationalists are coming out and pointing to the Trump
victory to justify hate and discrimination. A Muslim owned clothing
store had apparently been set on fire, just like Jewish shops were
burnt in Germany.
Monks that have spread Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism and hate
are again making a comeback.
It is notable that in the US, evangelists backed Trump.
In the West the recent rise in nationalism may have been partly
fuelled by the insistence on free trade in an economic downturn,
by rational politicians and bureaucrats who treats everyone
equally (read elites, the establishment) who knew the harm trade
restrictions would create and delay an economic recovery.
During the Great Depression, many countries enacted trade
barriers. Modern protectionism gained ground during the Great
Depression. In the US the SmootHawley Tariff is notable.
Trade restrictions may have helped deflect public anger, though it
prolonged the Great Depression and put more people out of work.
During the Great Recession, a conscious effort was made to keep
free trade going, which helped prevent a greater meltdown.
But it was all grist for the nationalist mill.
Scapegoatism

While free trade stopped an economic melt-down like the Great

Depression, it nonetheless gave a target or scapegoat for
nationalists ride back to power.
Chauvinism, or the false idea that an ethnic, religious or other
easily recognizable group usually a majority is superior to
others, exists in all societies. Even caste divides are a type of
chauvinism.
People also use words like jingoism, fascism, excessive patriotism,
blind patriotism, excessive nationalism, sectarianism, flag-waving,
xenophobia (against foreigners), racism (people of colour), racial
prejudice, ethnocentrism (ethnic groups), ethnocentricity;
partisanship, partiality, prejudice, bias, discrimination,
intolerance, bigotry; male chauvinism (against women), sexism,
misogyny
Discerning philosophers who studied the rise of nationalism in the
West, where it originated with the popular vote, draw a distinction
and say nationalism is goes beyond mere prejudice, class divides
and bias.
Nationalism vs Chauvinism
Nationalism is the giving of political expression to chauvinist ideas
through the law-making process of elections and parliaments that
came up in the West from the 1860s.
The distinction is fine.

It is not the same as caste divides or slavery. Slavers or high caste

people did not generally seek the elimination of such people in
general. They were considered a valuable part of the economic
system that prevailed at the time.
But nationalists want to eliminate the minority objects of their
hatred (Jews, Muslims, minority groups) and reduce their
population.
Emperors or kings, or the aristocracy who considered
themselves above the commoners did not desire the death of
commoners, but considered them valuable.
Unlike in the case of the popular vote, they had no incentive to
engage in nationalism, though some did after being egged on by
priests and monks.
Many just monarchs were loved by their commoner subjects, even
so-called foreigners (example Elara in Sri Lanka).
Echoes of Nazism
The high point of nationalism was National Socialism of Germany,
a variation of fascism that swept Eastern Europe as feudal
Empires, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up and the
democracy (more correctly the popular vote) came in.
The European nationalism generally targeted Jews based on
existing prejudices against the community by Christians. But

others including and then Slavic people were also targeted by

Aryans.
The targeting of minorities is easier during an economic
downturn. In the 1920s the Marxist-socialist Weimar Republic of
Germany collapsed with the country burning in hyperinflation with
excessive money printing and as well as socialist interventionism
after Germany lost World War I.
Hitlers nationalists blamed the Jews for the World War II defeat
calling it the stab in the back. Jewish bankers were blamed for
the economic crisis, the same echo is seen in Donald Trumps
rants against International Bankers.
During Brexit it was foreign migrants that were blamed for job
losses at home.
One of the first acts of Hitler after coming into power was to stop
migration and deny citizenship to Jews, (regardless of whether
they spoke German, or was born in Germany or not). Hitler
himself was an Austrian. Trumps wife Melania is an immigrant.
Trump himself is of German descent his mother was a Scottish
immigrant.
A key factor of nationalism is that there is no logic or reason.
Nationalism is an appeal to tribalism, just as liberalism is an
appeal to reason.

In Eastern Europe, it was the mass media and freedom of

expression brought by liberals who broke the Monarchical rule
that allowed nationalist hate to be spread.
Now it is much more sophisticated. The internet based Breitbart
news is the latter day Der Angriff or Vlkischer Beobachter.
Historical Greatness (Atheether Shree Viboothiyer)
Donald Trump is seeking to Make America Great Again.
The implication is that the US (which is recovering from burst
credit bubble and is still arguably the most powerful and
innovative country in the world which attracts immigrants
including most Nobel Laureates, despite the slightly socialist
policies of the Obama administration) was better and stronger in
the past and there is a need to re-create the lost historical place.
It is hauntingly similar to Hitlers desire to create a Third Reich
(realm), which also sought to Make Germany Great Again. The
first Reich was the so-called Holy Roman Empire.
The basic premise was to make a Christian-German nation,
though all Christians who questioned minority bashing including
Catholics and Lutherans were progressively suppressed.
Like the way liberal Sri Lankan followers of the Lord Buddha says
Nationalist hate is un-Buddhist, Christians who stayed true to the
values of the religion said that Nationalism was un-Christian.
Americans say that Trumpism is un-American.

The first Reich is the Holy Roman Empire, which was a real empire
and not a nationalist one. The second Reich is the German empire
1871-1918 which was unified along linguistic lines.
In Sri Lanka the nationalists want to re-enact the historical glory
(Atheetha Sri Vibuthiya) centred on Sinhala-Bhuddist ethnoreligious lines.
However Sri Lankas Atheetha Sri Vibuthiya was less nationalist
than now, since Monarchs had no incentive to engage is such
tactics though inter-sectarian Buddhist conflicts did occur from
time to time.
Under a monarchy or an Empire, it is necessary for priests and
other nationalists to get the ear of the king and ministers to
suppress a minority. It is not easy.
The nationalists have to sometime work through a child of the
king and poison his mind. But instant results can be got through
the European-style popular vote.
With the popular vote it is easy for a few urban nationalist
intellectuals push the agenda to the uneducated masses,
especially to those who have no idea about liberty. It is not for
nothing that whites without a college education are the biggest
supporters of Trump, while the originators of the ideas are
themselves urban, college educated whites.
There were also slaves that opposed abolition, just like Sri
Lankans opposed neo-liberalism, which gives only half-baked
types of freedoms compared to classical liberalism.

In the US, blacks were not a target of Trumpism. They were

targeted with Jim Crow laws at one time.
But now public opinion is stronger against targeting people of
colour. It is not politically correct to target blacks. However
Trump has made racially tinged remarks about voter fraud in
inner cities, a reference to black areas.
In Sri Lanka in recent years Muslim were targeted. Like blacks in
America it is less hip to target Tamils now.
In the immediate after math of independence it was Tamils who
are targeted through the parliament.
Latent Tribalism
At the moment Sri Lanka has an administration which came to
power on improving freedoms for all communities.
But the latent nationalism in Sri Lanka is alive and well. It is
politically correct to refer to Sri Lanka has a Sinhala nation or a
Buddhist nation rather than just Sri Lanka.
There is an unwritten Jewish paragraph so widely accepted that
it is a law by custom, that a non-Sinhalese or a non-Sinhalese
Buddhist cannot be the leader of Sri Lanka.

There is strong opposition to making the country a secular state.

In state schools in Sri Lanka from a young age, kids including are
taught nationalism.
Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union are yet to
come. Education about Nazism is not part of the syllabi in schools.
European history is not taught, despite the country using a deadly
European political system bestowed upon the citizenry by
Western liberals like is automatically prone to the tyranny of the
majority.
No one is taught that democracy is dangerous or as Alexis de
Tocqueville said that a decision which bases its claim to rule
upon numbers, not upon rightness or excellence could be
irrational.
Lessons for Sri Lanka
While chauvinist and nationalist or tribal ideas are latent and
always present, more people can be persuaded to believe them
and disregard during an economic downturn.
The so-called elites (British PM David Cameron, EU Mandarin, the
Washington establishment, Republican leaders) know that closing
borders would worsen the economy, or at least make a country
grow below its potential.
Already US capitalist businesses are warning Trump not to restrict
trade.

If Obama administration was less socialist, if the new regulations

did not strangle the banks, the US would have been doing even
better. A key target of the Trump campaign for example was
Obamacare.
Trump is coming with a promise to scrap banking and other
regulations.
Europe is lagging behind due to much tighter regulation, than the
US.
This presents important lessons for Sri Lanka.
The current governments flirting with Marxism and excessive
interventionism bodes ill for a strong economic take-off. While the
budget has sought to reduce the deficit, it is being done with
more taxes being taken from the people to pay higher salaries to
state workers.
Even that may not do too much damage.
What is damaging however are the Soviet-style price controls,
regulatory bodies for new areas, Chavez-style reforms proposed
for privatized plantations and Rajapaksa-like taxes on imported
television dramas to name a few.
The plantations break up is coming in the wake of expropriation
practised by the Rajapaksa regime and retrospective taxes by the
current administration.

For country seeking private investment these is highly damaging

and is direct blow to a central economic plank of the current
administration that of drawing foreign direct investment. Instead
of breaking up plantations, they should be de-regulated to allow
foreign investments.
Sri Lankas plans to scrap coal plants will also raise costs and
hinder economic growth and make the entire country less
competitive.
A depreciating currency is deadly will also increase spread
sweeping economic hardship, on top of value added taxes.
Moves that reduce investor protection, economic interventionism
and a regulatory Raj will provide fertile ground for nationalists to
rise up and convince a public that is suffering from perceived and
real economic hardships.
This column is based on The Price Signal by Bellwether
published in the December 2016 issue of the Echelon
Magazine. /EN
Posted by Thavam