Nationalism

Nationalism is a recurring theme in Yuval Noah Harari’s work as catalogued in Kyle’s notes, examined from two angles. In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Harari draws the line between benign patriotism and its degeneration: “The problem starts when benign patriotism morphs into chauvinistic ultranationalism” — feeling not just that one’s nation is unique (true of all nations) but supreme, owed total loyalty, with no obligations to anyone else, which he calls “fertile ground for violent conflicts.” His central practical worry is the inadequacy of national politics for global problems: “Zealous nationalists who cry ‘Our country first!’ should ask themselves whether their country by itself, without a robust system of international cooperation, can protect the world — or even itself — from nuclear destruction.”

In Sapiens, Harari treats nationalism as an instance of his broader “imagined order” / constructed-narrative frame: nations exist only in “the common imagination of human beings.” He writes that “consumerism and nationalism work extra hours to make us imagine that millions of strangers belong to the same community as ourselves… This isn’t a lie. It’s imagination.” Nationalism, in this reading, is one of the shared fictions (alongside money, law, and human rights) that lets large numbers of strangers cooperate — a direct application of Harari’s Storytelling thesis.

Context: Nationalism is the ideology that the nation — a community typically defined by shared language, history, or culture — is the primary unit of political loyalty and legitimacy. Scholars like Benedict Anderson (“imagined communities”) and Ernest Gellner argued nations are modern constructions rather than ancient givens, a view Harari extends in Sapiens.

Where this appears

• 21 Lessons for the 21st Century — benign patriotism vs. chauvinistic ultranationalism; the inadequacy of national politics for global (e.g. nuclear) threats.
• Sapiens — nationalism as an “imagined order” that, like money and law, binds millions of strangers through shared narrative.