Nationalism has been variously employed for many good and bad ends, although often mostly bad. Endless thoughts and theories have been devoted to how to overcome national sentiment, such as the idea of universal human rights or class solidarity. These no doubt have their merits, but all of them have failed to suppress national sentiment to any meaningful degree. There is no denying that nationalism is still one of the most powerful motivators of people in our day and age. 

If we are to assume that nationalism is immutable, then we should stop trying to subdue it and instead think of how we can harness its power towards better goals. It seems to me that we might have more luck trying to change the composition of nationalism than to try get rid of it. That is, we should reorient nationalism for greater ends rather than letting it fall to the hands of those with the worst impulses.

Conservation is perhaps most ripe for this kind of attention. America has some of the most extraordinary natural wonders in the world and it surprises me that our ecological treasures don’t play a larger part in our American mythos. Even worse, we often are willing to let some of our wilderness be destroyed in exchange for the economic windfalls from the extraction of natural resources.

Whether I was in a national park or the Appalachian woods in my hometown, to me the wilderness has often told the American story far more eloquently than words on a page ever have. I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way. This makes it even more confounding to often see those demographics most connected to nature, through hunting or living in a rural location, be the same ones to advocate for the desecration of these lands and waters for economic gain. 

Economic desperation often makes for meager choices, but the “deal” that exchanges jobs and income for damage to our natural ecosystems is less a deal than a poison pill. In the grand scheme of things, the executives always come away with their pockets lined, while the workers experience marginal gains at best and the environment bears deep scars.

Fundamentally, corporations have no ties to the lands they destroy. Their ultimate allegiance is not to America, but the place with the lowest taxes. The same goes for those who run these companies. The wealthy have apartments and properties in cities distributed like an archipelago across the globe. Their cosmopolitan status allows them to exchange one skyline view for another on a whim. There’s nothing that ties them to a particular place the way you and me do when we have to go home during Spring Break. They have no stakes in American land besides economic ones, and thus have no qualms about degrading and polluting it. 

Should nationalism inform us on how to respond to those who have no reason to see America thrive, we would zealously guard our land from exploitation. Making our natural endowments a larger part of our national identity will keep us clear-eyed about just exactly what is happening when corporations come to offer jobs at their new open-pit mine. Such deals should never cross our minds as even the remotest possibility, the way we would never consider fracking on the National Mall. These natural wonders are America’s crown jewels, our treasure. 

Grant Li is a Weinberg junior. He can be contacted at [email protected].edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.