Canadian nationalism could have bad consequences after Olympics, prof says
Vancouver has been dipped in a coat of red and white. It’s national pride on a scale the city has never experienced.
But while the 2010 Winter Olympic Games have successfully translated nationalism into a city-wide party, there are potential problems with fostering such a collective identity, a professor of social psychology has warned.
“We all feel needs to connect with others and one of the ways that we do that is feeling part of a larger group,” explained Michael Schmitt. “I think that you can certainly see examples of that with the Olympics, with people feeling a sense of national pride.”
A positive outcome of that phenomenon can be observed in the relatively peaceful crowds that have packed Granville Street and the downtown core, Schmitt said from his office at Simon Fraser University. The city’s bars and nightclubs have kept the party going during the Olympics, but alcohol-related violence has not been widespread.
On the other hand, the same feelings of national pride that might prompt a person to pick a piece of trash up off the street can be used by bodies of authority for specific political ends.
“Think about a lot of the identities involved around the Olympics,” Schmitt said. “There is certainly lots of indoctrination and socialization that begins when we’re very young, encouraging us to feel a sense of national pride and even pledging an allegiance to that identity. And most information that we usually tend to get comes from within a nation, and is often biased in a way to make us continue to feel positive about that identity.”
He continued, “The same kinds of national pride that we might see around the Olympics can be used to help to create justification and support for military endeavours in other states. That, in some ways, is the potentially more dangerous side of what otherwise seems pretty harmless: that these identities do get used to fulfill particular political ends.”
According to Schmitt, organizations like the International Olympic Committee and Vanoc have been able to strongly associate themselves with notions of international peace. He argued that that has made even controversial initiatives very difficult for people to question.
“In many ways, a sense of pride or attachment to Vancouver and B.C. was used to convince a lot of people that the Olympics was actually going to be a good thing for the people of Vancouver and the people of B.C.,” Schmitt said. “And I’m actually pretty convinced that the opposite is true.”
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Comments
46 Comments
Ethan
Feb 24, 2010 at 2:53pm
What a garbage article. We had the olympics before in calgary and montreal, we didn't go bomb other countries afterwards in the name of canadian pride.
Pat
Feb 24, 2010 at 3:19pm
The message of this article won't sit well with many people while we are still reveling in the Olympics, cheering for our athletes, and enjoying the party here in Vancouver. But it will be more palatable when the emotions of the games die away. Blind patriotism and flag waving and a feeling that our country is superior to others is never a good thing (except at the Olympics).
Chris C.
Feb 24, 2010 at 3:50pm
yeah, and those Olympic games were a whole different story, different time, place, different circumstances, different reality, different, period. Wake up Mr. Ethan.
Twenty two years have passed and a whole lot has changed. Oh if you want to compare, go back to the 1936 Olympic games.
Calgary rode on the backs of volunteers mostly. Whereas Vancouver is a corporate marketing scheme to the hilt. if that isn't enough to convince you of there being differences, I don't know what would be.
C. Hawk
Feb 24, 2010 at 4:01pm
Ethan - We weren't at war during the Calgary and Montreal Olympics, we are now. People waving flags on the street and singing O Canada probably won't lead to some dangerous thing, but I wonder if the fact that we are currently at war makes any difference to the way people perceive the national pride from the Olympics.
Proud Canadian
Feb 24, 2010 at 7:38pm
I find it really disappointing that people automatically refer to any kind of patriotism as "blind". In our vast, disparate, and multicultural nation, we don't have too many things to bring us together and foster a sense of wider community. I honestly think that this is important in building a more civil, compassionate society. Being patriotic doesn't mean you feel superior to other countries. I'm proud to be Canadian, but that doesn't translate to any sense of superiority over other countries. I think the same holds for most people. It's a much more positive and constructive emotion than the alienation that many groups feel in this country.
emil
Feb 24, 2010 at 7:56pm
What a negative nelly peice. Michael enjoy what is going on...or better yet put a wet towel over your head and go back to your Ivory tower in Simon Fraser where likely most of your cronies agree with you
eddy
Feb 24, 2010 at 8:56pm
This is the idea of an Educated University Prof: I only hope my, or any portion of my tax dollars are not going into his salary. These Olympics more than any other event have done more to create a sense of unity and purpose and pride in being a Canadian, plus collectively standing up and saying it to the world. In that respect the Games are worth it. It shows the experiment of multiculturalism does have a chance of working. The struggle to achieve that is not over, but there is hope. As to the Prof: if you cannot share the pride, go spew out your misguided theories to someone who cares.
Gabriel
Feb 24, 2010 at 11:11pm
The last sentences of the article, quoted from Schmitt, left me waiting for evidence that never came. Why is he convinced that the Olympics will be bad for Vancouver and BC? Who knows, he doesn't say.
Strategis
Feb 25, 2010 at 3:12am
The loyalty and pride that Canadians are being indoctrinated to feel for Canadian Olympic athletes, in a socialisation campaign that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase on the open market, can and will almost certainly be transfered by the government, corporations, armed forces, police and military - acting in a conscious, coordinated, strategic marketing campaign - into feelings of loyalty and pride for Canadian troops and intelligence agents as they follow government orders to participate in unpopular, counterproductive, and often extremely illegal activities around the globe.
Sports are in many ways just a tool of distraction and manipulation of public feelings and perceptions to further the elaborate long term agenda of the military industrial financial complex that controls pretty much all important sectors of society.
Birdy
Feb 25, 2010 at 4:59am
@C. Hawk
The "war" in Afghanistan was not started by patriotic hockey fans. We're also not at war with the country; we're there to throw away money building schools for them while we close the ones in Canada. Really we're there to build infrastructure for a massive network of oil pipelines and drive around in pointless patrol circles while being attacked by insurgents using weapons the Americans sold to them during the Soviet–Afghan war.