U1L4 Reconciling National and Non National Loyalties

Everyone’s identity contains individual and collective loyalties. Some of your collective loyalties may be nationalist, and some may be non-nationalist. A non-nationalist loyalty does not involve nation. Loyalties to your family or to the belief that animals must be treated humanely are examples of non-nationalist loyalties.

Like any type of loyalty non-nationalist loyalties can change. The dividing line between nationalist and non-nationalist loyalties is not always clear. Friends are an example of a non-nationalist loyalty, but if you choose your friends because they come from Lebanon and share the same language and culture there is also a shared nationalist loyalty. Religious, regional, cultural, ethnic, and class loyalties can all be non-nationalist. However, overtime these loyalties can develop into the kind of collective consciousness that becomes a nationalist loyalty.

Just as different nationalist loyalties can compete, so can nationalist and non-nationalist loyalties. Conflict can occur whenever there are competing goals.

Class is a way to dividing society according to wealth, or status, or eduction.  Most societies are divided either formally or informally into social classes. People are divided into classes based on what they do for work or by their wealth, education, ancestry, etc. If people accept these divisions no conflict will occur. If people reject the inequality (like in the French revolution) conflict may result.    A primary example of class loyalties was The Winnipeg General Strike, where workers were concerned that they could not economicaly sustain themselves due to the loss of work and money that was avialable to soldiers retuning from WWI.

Just after World War I, most people were poor and wanted to be protected by unions and many people went on strike or stopped working. The employers didn't want unions, so they called in the RCMP to put an end to the strike. The aftermath saw 2 people killed, 30 injured, and a stop to the strike.

In 1970, Arab countries stopped selling oil to Western countries. which made the prices of oil and gas go up. Lots of people throughout Canada lost their jobs, but things were going well in Alberta because of the high price of oil. Prime Minister Trudeau decided that Alberta would sell its oil at a lower price, and taxed it heavily. This plan of forcing Alberta to sell it at a lower price was known as the National Energy Program (NEP). This caused companies to do business in other places, which caused unemployment, and tough times in Alberta. In 1981, Premier Lougheed and Pierre Trudeau eventually agreed to allow Alberta to control oil prices and revenue. When the price of oil continued to rise steadily, it became possible to invest in the oil sands in Alberta, which helped build opportunities and prosperity in the province. 

People who support the oil sands development may be inspired by regional loyalty. They may believe that the oil sand benefits Alberta and the rest of Canada. The same people may think that the price is too high because of damage to the environment. Similarily they may also value their Canadian Identity as much as their Albertan identity. For example, 3000 km of forest was destroyed. Their ideological loyalty to environmentalism may compete with their regional loyalty. Some Albertans have chosen to view their Albertan identity as their primary loyalty, leading to the Wexit/Meverick movement. This is a contentious issue and many have stated they wish to puch closer to serperation as a means to validate their concern of Western Alienation while some truly do want to serperate (though legally, and logistically it may not work).

What can people do when their National and Non-National loyalties are in competition? People can:

• Live with their contending loyalties
• Choose one Loyalty over another
• Accommodate non-nationalist loyalties by bringing about change in the nation

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 Living with Contending Loyalties

When loyalties compete people may choose to remain uninvolved for many reasons. They may:

• Be undecided on how to respond
• Believe that doing nothing is easier than speaking out or taking action
• Believe that as individuals, they can’t make a difference
• Be occupied with other concerns

The price people pay for their silence is that someone else may end up making important decisions for them.