Nationalism sometimes a necessity

Nationalism sometimes a necessity.

If anything history taught us, it is that nationalism is a bad thing and those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, while those who do not learn from it correctly are simply doomed.Its the classic dogma we left over from World War II.

Yet, nationalism is back on the rise, why, we should wonder.
First there's something different now, we got nationalist who take the extreme view of isolation, expulsion off all that's foreign and own people first. And we got nationalist who want more 'equal' rights and more autonomy of the main region of the ethnicity that they represent.
The first one should be halted while the second should be listened to.

After World War II, the fall of Franco and the end of the military junta in Greece, many people seem to believe ethnic persecution in Europe, especially among Europeans, seized to be a major factor in the relationship between nations, some say it disappeared all together in Western Europe.

Unfortunatly this is not true, in Western Europe alone, there are at least 3 regions where the local population feels like it's treated a lower class citizens then the rest of the country:

• Northern Ireland
• Bask land,Spain and France
• Flanders,Belgium

I think the story in Northern Ireland is well know, it did regularly appear in the news.  For the Bask region (if any of them read this please appoligise me if I spelled the name wrong), things are a bit different. The culture of the Bask differs from the rest of Spain, they have also their own language. In the fight against Franco they were promised more autonomy and rights if they helped defeat him, they did help but the Spanish government never executed the promises.Flanders is an odd duck, the Flemish make out the majority of the Belgium populous and are quite richer then the Walloons, yet politically one could say that the Flemish have very little to say in the daily affairs of Belgium. A Flemish with a proposal that effects Belgium has to compromise with the Walloons, while a Walloon only has to find a majority.

These problem have given cause to the rise of nationalist movements that advocate fiercly for these ethnic groups.

Nationalisms is a bad thing (in it's extremes), but that doesn't mean their points are not valid. Or that the root of their rise should not be looked at. The best way to fight the extreme form of nationalism is to listen to the moderates ones.