Love

Introduction

The concept of love has always been an intriguing one since the ancient times. Many have misunderstood it, but many have understand the true meaning of love. It is perhaps something that is the most unique to the human being, or is it? We see animals caring for their offspring, but in the end, there is always some form of ulterior motive for it. Animals care for their offspring to maintain their blood, and it’s simply the rule of life. Perhaps, is there such a thing as true love? Or is love in first sight even possible? What about the love described by Jesus? I will attempt to answer these questions, and to discover the true meaning of this enigmatic issue.

What is Love?

Love is an emotion, feeling, and also an action. We may feel in love with someone, and our actions can also show our love. Jesus instructs all of us to love each other as we love ourselves. So what is love actually? Perhaps it is better for us to know what love is not. First, is love a higher level of like? No, liking something or someone is different from loving them. As liking is usually associated with attraction, we like something or someone is because they have a certain feature that appeals to us and thus we become attracted to it. So what is love then?

Love, first of all is unconditional, meaning that we love something regardless of its condition, and there is no condition required to love. To like, on the other hand is conditional, we like something because there is a certain condition that attracts us. Since we know that love is unconditional and is not the same with like or attraction, we can start to figure out what love truly is. Of course, this begs the question, what about romantic relationships, are they love or just like or attraction?

In romantic relationships, it is hard to determine whether the couple truly loves each other or not, as they may do things that look like they love each other, but in actuality they don’t. Why is this? Say the couple would protect each other and fulfill each other’s needs, but in the end one can say that they are doing it just for self gain, how is this? This is possible because it becomes a mutually symbiotic relationship, which in the end is just for self gain, we help the other party so they can help us. In the end it’s still conditional. Though of course, there are couples who truly do love each other unconditionally.

What about love in first sight? Truth is, what people regard as love in first sight is just sexual attraction or lust, again this is conditional and thus not love at all. As such, when you fall in love with someone just by looking at them, you’re probably just sexually attracted to them, nothing else. And again, it is possible that couples are only in relationship because they are sexually attracted to each other, again not love. As such, there is no such thing as love in first sight, it’s only sexual attraction.

Then what is true love then? We’ve been running around in circles without really knowing what is love. However, we do know that love is not the same with like or attraction. They have similar properties, but have one key difference, love is unconditional, while attraction is conditional. As such, we can deduce that attraction has the sole purpose of self gain, while love has nothing to do with self gain. With that information, we can start deducing what love truly is.

Love is the feeling or emotion that we have for someone, where we wish to give or do what is best for them. Of course, we don’t just want them to be happy, but we want them the best for them, and we express it through our actions to help them. When we love someone, we don’t really care about ourselves, all we want is for the other to be happy and have a good life. As such, we do not expect rewards, and we love them regardless of their nature. And that is true love. Though is that all, is that all there is with love? Of course not, as now we have to relate this with our understanding of the Divine.

Self Gain?

If we remind ourselves of the truth of God and thus all of us, we can arrive in the conclusion that there is only one person that exists, that is God, and all others are just a reiteration or reflection of God. Now, that has a serious implication with our idea of love. As that means that love in the end is just for self gain, right? This makes sense, as whatever we do, it all boils down to God, and thus by loving others, we just love ourselves. Then is that it? Is love selfish?

Of course not, love is not selfish. And we seem to forgot one thing, loving ourselves. Isn’t self love the same with egoism and selfishness? Of course not, remember the key aspect of love, unconditional. To love oneself is accept ourselves for whatever we are, and we do things that helps us get closer to the truth and to life. Of course it is for self gain, as we gain something from it in the end. And the idea of self love truly makes sense when you relate it with the truth of God.

When we love, what we are doing is we accept our true nature, that is of ourselves and our self as God for what we are. We accept that there is evil in this world, we accept that there are imperfections, but we love them regardless. We strive to do what is good for the entirety of the self, and thus bring the entire self closer to life, freedom, and truth. Of course love is for self gain, but then there is only the self. Self gain, is truly our gain.

Closing

I can say more about this topic and just blabber on about love. But it’s useless, love is simple, it is unconditional and acceptance of the self, of God. It is the desire for the self to be in the light, to live, to be free, to be something more. To mean more and live more than just get rich and die. Love is simply acceptance of the self and the desire to move forwards and constantly be better. I believe that is all I have to say, have a nice day and see you later.

God Fracturing

Introduction

This should be my penultimate essay on the topic of God, and this essay will illustrate the relationship between us, each other, and of course God. I have proven how God should exist by logical means and through pure skepticism. However, proving God to exist alone does not clear up the true nature of God. Say, if only one conscious being exists, what is the role of everyone and everything else? Are they merely imaginations of the divine, or do they exist beyond thought as well? What is the material world then? Does it exist? Today, I will attempt to answer those questions, enjoy.

Identity

Foremost, it is important to know whether God has an identity or form or not. To answer this question, we must remember that since God is the source of everything in the world, God should transcend everything that exists. What does that mean? It means God must be infinite in nature. How does that relate with transcendence? Let’s examine a simple feature, that is gender. Many people describe God to be male, or refer to God as male, however if God is male, then how can there be females in the first place? As such, God should trascend the concept of gender, so then there can be male and female.

Since God transcends everything, God is limitless in nature. As a result, God has no true identity or form, God may take a form or identity for a while such as Jesus, but it is simply one out of the infinite identities of God. Identity here means a unique variation or iteration of the conscious being, there are supposed infinite amounts of it. And it’s not necessarily limited to human beings, as we have no idea whether consciousness inhabits other lifeforms or artificial intelligence or not. Now that we know the very infinite nature of God, we can start deducing the role of everything else.

Which is God?

It is undoubtable that God is the true and one and only conscious being. However, since God has no true form or identity, that means there is no one single area or person that we can attribute to God. If such, what is God then? The answer is simple, if no one thing is specifically God, then there can only be one conclusion, that everything is God. Then can we say that we are part of God? It is not as simple as that. God is not a system where that system is everything that exists, and we are a member of that system. As God has no true identity, nonetheless God has an identity, They simply have no true one, what does this mean?

Perhaps there can be a true identity, though we can not say it as a true identity, we can however call it an absolute identity. The absolute identity of God is the sum of all things that exist, materially or not. This sum exists, and is the source of all existence. Everything within this universe and beyond originated from this singular being that is God. Yet, everything that came from God is technically still a part of God. So clearly that God can not be described as a system and we are all just members of it, this is because God is conscious, and that means there is an absolute conscious identity which becomes the origins of all further identity, and now, we must understand the true meaning of the absolute identity.

Absolute Identity

The absolute identity of God should be something that becomes the common basis of all reality. This common basis is fortunately already identified. It is something that is shared by everything in existence, this seems far fetched, as that means there is something that we humans and a black hole share. This seems odd, as how can there be something that everything shares in common, yet there is, and that thing is called energy and information. Energy is the basis of everything that exists, and matter is merely energy that is frozen or condensed. This is proven by Einstein’s equation of e=mc^2. Which means that matter is simply large amounts of energy condensed into a small area.

Information is simply the different arrangements and organizations of energy. Different things that exist is simply a manifestation and expression of information. Raw information however is simply the varied values and abstract data that dictates the arrangement of things. Though in the end, information only exists when energy changes form, that is when we can see something unique. However, pure energy, that is God, doesn’t contain no information, instead it is maximum information, which is akin to no information at all. When energy becomes more varied in form, each form actually has less information than pure energy.

There is one more element, other than energy and information, and that is consciousness. God, by essence is a conscious being of pure energy and information. This is the absolute identity of God, consciousness, energy and information. There is a reason why humans consider themselves the true reflection of God or the most noble creatures, it is because humans are the beings that have proven themselves to be truly conscious. While it is debatable whether animals are conscious or not, that is another problem. Now we understand the absolute identity of God, we can start working our way towards the role of everything else.

Fracturing

If we are to understand that God’s absolute identity is of pure energy, consciousness, and information, and everything comes from God, yet is still part of God, we will arrive at one conclusion. That conclusion is everything else, is a fracturing of God, what does that mean? Let me explain. Let us limit the world to three people and three other objects. There is Anna, Robert, Josephine, and there’s also a mountain, a car, and a barbecue grill. All six of these variants of energy is a part of God. And God encompasses all six of them. All six comes from God, though while they seem separate from God, they are still part of God, what does this mean?

Each object, alive or not is a reflection or manifestation of one specific part of God. This is why an object that has unique characteristics has less information that something that has no characteristic at all, that is God. As it is only a small part of the entirety of the information. So while say the information is ascribed to say Robert or even a mountain is still within the absolute God, it is also expressed outwards and manifested as Robert, or the mountain. Each entity, that is Robert, Anna, Josephine, the mountain, the car, and the grill contains information that is for them specifically. Robert doesn’t have information that can manifest a grill or Josephine. And neither does the grill and Josephine have information that can manifest Robert. However, all of them are a reflection of the absolute information that can manifest all of them.

Now apply this to the entire world. The inevitable conclusion is that every unique object we see and sense, every person, every insect, every thought are all manifestations and expressions of a certain part of God. This is what I call God fracturing, the entire world is a fracturing of God. Each person and their unique identities are a split, a fracture of God’s absolute identity. Differences within humanity is a very clear example of such fracturing. And this means everything, including evil, vile, cruel things, they too are a fracture of God. This is where people often misunderstand about God, that is morality. Of course, the inevitable conclusion is that evil is a part of God, but does that make God inherently evil? No, it does not, we can still see beauty in this world regardless of the vileness within. Then it begs the question, what’s the point?

The Goal of Fracturing

Of course, if we are to assume that God is static, then yes fracturing is quite odd. However, we must not forget that God is conscious, and with consciousness comes a heart, and thus feelings. One can not be conscious without feeling, for the very least if they are cold blooded, then they should be able to feel their own existence, and thus understand that they exist. And a conscious being always makes new thoughts, decisions, and so on. They think and keep thinking, which means they are dynamic entity. And this is where fracturing becomes important.

The story of existence boils down into the story of one person and one person only, that is God. Every war and battle is an interpersonal disagreement within God. And the fracturing of God has one purpose, that is to in the end, bring God into eternal enlightenment and perfection. For every person that commits sin, they drag God further from light, and for every person that loves their fellow beings, they bring God closer to freedom. And doesn’t this mean that God is an imperfect being? No, God transcends it, God is imperfect and perfect. This seems confusing, but that is the nature of God.

In the end, God is fractured so all of God can be saved and feel true freedom and light. It is done to expose the most wicked and the most righteous sides of God, as so the righteous can help the wicked and broken see light as well. As such bringing the entire reality of God into light. Of course, the righteous also needs to develop, and that is our role as human beings, to develop further, help our fellow human beings, mature, and to finally be reunited with the light and energy. The story of God is not of someone far and blood thirsty, it is a story of ourselves, working to move forwards, regardless of anything else. I rest my case.

Closing

That concludes the God saga of my essays, at least for the time being. It is unfortunate that many people either twists this idea or deny it completely, and thus denying themselves in the process. While there may be questions of an infinite regress, we can always assume an end in the regress, wherever it is, even if God is just another part of a grander God, it doesn’t matter. As my theory describes the absolute God, the one at the end of the line, not anything between. As such, I hope this can be useful for others. I believe that is all I have to say for now, have a nice day and see you later.

Analysis on Christianity

Introduction

It seems odd that while I have made 3 essays regarding Christianity, I have not made a proper introductory essay on Christianity itself. As such, this shall be the official introduction towards my analysis of Christianity. Christianity is a unique religion, it is just as filled with traditions and rituals as other religions, yet has no sign of a bias or obvious specific cultural or regional elements. Unlike Judaism which is strongly rooted in the culture of the Jewish people, Islam which has deeply rooted Arabic elements, Hinduism and Buddhism which have very obvious Indian elements. In fact, it is no coincidence that Jesus was rejected, for being too globalistic and ahead of His time. Moreover, Christianity is the largest religion in the world, as such I believe it is only wise for us to analyze this enigmatic religion.

One Story, Two Messages

The story of Christianity centers around the person named Jesus of Nazareth, His life, His teachings, and His death until the resurrection and ascension. It has two unique messages however, which are painted by one story. The first message is a set of moral codes humans are supposed to follow, this is illustrated and elaborated in the various teachings, parables, and miracles of Jesus Christ within the Gospel. The second message, tells of Jesus’ sacrifice as well as the truth of God. The moral messages in the Gospel are quite straightforward, on the contrary the story of a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind as well as the truth of God is much more mysterious, and many interpretations of it have been made, few are close to the truth.

Moral Code

The moral code of the entirety of Christianity, or at least Christ can be summarized with two commandments, that is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength as well as loving your neighbor as you love yourself. This is recorded in Mark 12:28-34, Mathew 22:34-40, and Luke 10:25-28. Essentially, we must love God wholeheartedly, as well as love fellow human beings as if they are ourselves. As such, we must love ourself first before we can love others, as if we don’t love ourselves, we won’t understand how to love others. All other moral teachings are in the end, based on these two commands. What of the commands of homophobia and so on? That shall be discussed further later on this essay.

Jesus

While the official doctrine of Jesus within Christianity will differ from my analysis, this is because I am taking this from another perspective. The common belief is that Jesus died on the cross to atone for the sins of mankind. This much is true, but I’d like to add more. How does Jesus atone for the sins of mankind? Many view that it is only a physical death and suffering that Jesus endured, that is a misguided view however. As it is shown that Jesus cried in Gethsemane before He is captured, throughout history men and women have braved death with even smiles, so how could Christ not brave physical death?

The only logical conclusion is that Christ fears a deeper level of suffering. Jesus fears a spiritual death and suffering. As Jesus dies on the cross, His soul is dragged to hell in exchange for all of humanity. Jesus was cursed for the sake of mankind, it is a misguided view that His curse is lifted once He is resurrected. Though His body awakes, His soul remains in eternal damnation so no one else must endure the same. But how can Jesus walk and speak when His soul is in damnation or hell? Just like how the kingdom of God described by Jesus is not a place, neither is hell. As such, it is important to understand hell, sin, and death to understand Jesus’ sacrifice.

The wages of sin is death, death described here is not mere physical death, nor is it oblivion. When you commit sin, you have surrendered your freedom and you become chained, either by the flesh or by something else. Eventually, you will fall deeper and deeper into a darkness and depravity. And you will be alone in an eternal darkness, you have no hope of escaping on your own and you are constantly tortured immensely by guilt and various pains that arise from your sin. The darkness described is what is known as hell, absolute depravity and corruption. As such, hell is a condition, and it is possible for one to be in hell, yet walk the earth. Meanwhile, the state of being unfree described here is what is known as death. Thus, death is a logical and natural consequence of sin, not because God wishes it or commands it.

And that is the death that Jesus endures so we don’t have to feel the same. The only inhabitant of hell as of now is Jesus and only Jesus. How is it that He can survive such pain without turning insane? It is because He is in direct communion with God. Which is why He mentions that He is one and the same with the Father. However, He is still human in nature, and the pain He endured was since He is still in His mother’s womb. Since in the womb, Jesus knew that He will suffer, be rejected, and be misunderstood and there is nothing He can do about it. This did not leave Jesus unscarred, He becomes wounded deeply, and carries the curse of knowledge until His death.

The evidence is scattered around the Gospel. The only record of His childhood in the Gospel, that is in Luke 2:41-51. Jesus’ unusual response towards His parents as well His discussion with the teachers there proves that He has a deep understanding of the world by then. We can then infer that He knows everything that shall happen as well. His response and general behavior recorded in the Gospel proves that He hides a deep pain. His language is harsh, cold, and strict. He shows no sign of softness of mercy towards His opponents such as the pharisee and the scribes. In fact, He oftenly mocks them, usually calling them hypocrites. The only time He showed His true emotions and self is when He is alone with God in Gethsemane. Where He cries in despair and pain, for while He is surrounded, He is truly alone.

As such, it is a truly misguided view that Christ is always in glory, and it is wrong to constantly glorify Christ and idolize Him. While Jesus never asked anyone to understand Him, He has never asked to be constantly glorified either. I agree that Jesus deserves glory for what He has done, but it is not what He feels. He feels pain and our constant idolizations merely adds to the pain. Furthermore, the view that we humans are below Christ is simply false, as Jesus Himself calls us His friends as recorded in John 15:15. As such, what we must do is view Jesus as what He truly is, and now what He is not. We must understand that Christ is no less human than us, and feels the same pain and struggles we do, even worse.

Systemized Misinterpretation

The over idolized view of Jesus can be traced to one thing, misinterpretation of the Gospel and the bible. No word of Christ in the Gospel is to be taken completely at face value. Even if it seems literal, we must strive to keep searching for the meanings and messages from it. The concept that there is no salvation outside of Christ is also a result of misinterpretation. Other than the Gospel, the Church has made another fatal mistake. That mistake is they take the word of man for the word of God. How is this true? You see, within the bible, the only group of books that is truly a record of the word of God is the Gospel, and no other.

What of the old testament? The old testament is merely a record of the Jews, and should not be used as a source of moral code. I am not saying we should ignore it completely, I am saying that the old testament is mostly word of man. Even when it is written as the word of God, it is still delivered by people that received word of God, that is the prophets. Prophets, being humans are fallible, and since the old testament is very old, we can not trust them very easily. The fact that Judaism is very ethnic centralized means we can not take the old testament plainly. We must dissect it with higher discretion than the Gospel. Laws that apply in the old testament certainly does not apply in the Gospel. What of the rest of the new testament?

Books after the Gospel merely describe the journey of the apostles and also their letters to the early Church followers. These letters are merely interpretation of the Gospel in the apostles’ perspectives. As such, if we take the letters for the absolute truth, that means we have strayed from the truth. The authors of the letters and the ones who made these interpretations are humans. They can be wrong, and we should analyze and dissect their words to know which are right and which are wrong. After all, commands of homophobia are found within these letters as well as complete submission towards authority and the State. The letters can be used as a starting point, but it is merely that, a starting point for further interpretations. It is our duty to expose the true meaning of Christ, and not swallow the apostles’ words plainly.

Closing

In conclusion, Jesus Christ is a man that chose to sacrifice Himself in the worst ways unimaginable so humanity does not have to suffer the same. In the 3 years He teaches, He laid down the truth in various metaphorical, literal, and complicated forms all recorded in the Gospel. His teachings have been greatly misinterpreted by the Church, which also made the fatal mistake of taking the word of man as the word of God. I believe that is all I have to say, I hope you have a nice day.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Preface

2.4 billion people of the earth believes that 2000 years ago, a man by the name of Jesus of Nazareth was crucified to save humanity. His teachings were recorded in 4 books now known as the Gospels. Many people tried to interpret His teachings, this includes the disciples and especially Paul. It is unfortunate however, that later generations accepted these interpretations as the ultimate interpretation, and that begins the 2000 year distortion of Christ. I have begun this journey first with my analysis on the trinity, and I tried to fit it with my idea of God. However, I encountered problems, namely of the crucifixion. It is time though, for me to reveal what I know, believe in what you will.

Death

I read an article made by a priest a week ago more or less, detailing about what kind of sacrifice Jesus made to save us, humanity. Of course, I used to think that it was just a physical death and suffering, but I know that is illogical. How can suffering in a physical level be equal to the sin of all? Furthermore, this death that befalls Jesus was enough to terrify Him into falling into despair and fear in Gethsemane. How could mere physical death terrify the Son of God Himself, when His future followers would die happily for the truth? It is not a physical death He fears, but it is a spiritual death. This is possible as consciousness is separate from the flesh. But what is this spiritual death exactly?

Spiritual death is the natural and logical consequence of sin, or immorality. It is not the termination of consciousness, as non existence is meaningless to consciousness, and thus it is impossible to experience non existence. It is in fact, a form of suffering, it is what some people describe as “hell”. When one sins, they have surrendered themselves into an unfree state, they chain themselves to the flesh, or to something else. And when you are unfree, you are the same as a dead man. Once you become chained, light will fade from your eyes, and you will slowly be dragged into an eternal darkness. Where you are alone, with no hope of salvation, tortured by your desires and your guilt, trapped in an eternal despair. This is what usually happens, until one time, one offered Himself for death.

Sacrifice

This man came up to God, the culmination of all existence, and a reflection of all things good about which that existed, and offered to end this cycle of madness. A cycle of death, where man and others will continue to sin until death consumes them, and in the end, existence will be doomed by the natural corruption it had caused, God too will then be corrupted and die. This man, offered to take the place of everyone else, and let the consequences of all sin on earth be administered upon His soul. Yet He is a noble man, He is sinless, with no stains on His pure soul. And so, He is condemned, by His own choices, He became cursed and damned for eternity. What happens next, has been recorded in the books.

As the man takes the form of a servant, He would have the knowledge that He has from the beginning, and He would corrupt Himself by His own consent. A knowledge, of an inevitable death, an inevitable suffering would burden Him for the 33 years of His life. He would speak in metaphors and parables, and He would lay down the truth, in hopes of someone to expose it. He would hide His own emotions, for the sake of others. All He does is for others, just so He can see people be saved from their deaths. And in the end, He would give up His life, His freedom and His sanity, to save the world from a damned end.

Jesus is a human, like all of us, but He is fully aware of His true nature, that He is God as well, and such, He is one that is in full communion with God. He requires to be in such a communion, as His curse would shatter Him if He were to go alone. He is chained to His God, for were the chains to break free, He would truly turn insane and a horror of unimaginable magnitude shall be unleashed. This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. One who gave His body and blood for all of us, so we can live from it, while His soul writhes in pain.

The Truth

It is a common misconception that by the time Jesus was resurrected, His curse is lifted. No, in fact His curse is never lifted. His resurrection is only there to give hope, hope that in the end the curse will be lifted, and all of this pain will disappear. It is to reassure the disciples that He is still with them. But His wounds, a sign of the curse, shows that His curse still applies. His curse did not leave Him woundless, it disparaged Him and broke Him in ways unimaginable to the human mind. But He hides this, as such He shows no signs of weakness, as no human would understand. None would accept Him.

He became twisted, and depraved as a human. He feels the worst of pain, and His suffering outweighs all others, for it is the suffering of others that He feels. His soul is constantly haunted and tortured by our sins, our desires, our crimes. Jesus Christ, while painted as a Godly being, as a superman, savior of all, noone realized what He had endured and what He became to do all of that. His wounds tore His heart apart into an unrecognizable mess. And if it was not for His communion with God, surely He would have turned into darkness, and turned on all of us. He is a soul in pain, in the worst of sufferings. His glory is a misunderstanding. He is continously cursed for us.

Nationalism: Ye or Nay?

It has been a significant time since I wrote anything remotely related to politics. There is a reason why I refrained from writing about politics. It is a very sensitive topic, and it just seems so hazy, however something triggered me to try look back at it. Not only today is Pancasila day, thus making it the perfect time to write something about politics, several days ago, I discussed about nationalism to my friend, well more of I was triggered. After reflecting on my idiocy, I feel it’s better if I write out my thoughts here, so here we go. Nationalism is heavily encouraged in my school, and it seems it seeped into me quite well, and you can’t blame the school considering my nation is in quite a mess. Responding to a threat of Islamic radicalism that can easily split the nation and destroy millions of lives in the process, I see nationalism is not a bad thing. However, is it actually good in the long run? Let’s begin.

The best way to start is to ask ourselves, what is nationalism? Is it different from patriotism? Well the definition can be argued, albeit there is one similarity, that it is a strong support and love for one’s country. As far as I am concerned, this is also the definition used by my teachers when talking about nationalism. Some say nationalism is actually harmful and promotes divide among humanity by creating unnecessary barriers called nations. Is there a degree of truth within that statement? Actually, there is, but it is important to understand that there are varying degrees of nationalism. Extreme forms of it is certainly harmful, especially when you start to think that your nation is superior to all others, and perhaps your country shall take over the world. This is the ideology behind Nazi Germany, and to an extent, hardcore communist countries, but many communists refute this, how do we handle this?

You see, when people think of nationalism, they think that it has to be ethnic based, and that a nation must be culturally based. While the definition of a nation or country can be debated, that is arbitrary and mostly irrelevant. As what we are discussing here is support of one’s country, and a country is also a nation. Radical nationalism is indeed harmful, as it makes one believe that they are superior to all others and perhaps their nation should dominate the world. Or, it can make that nation isolate itself and usually, an authoritarian government develops within that nation. This kind of nationalism is seen in the USSR and also North Korea. In Nazi Germany, it is also a radical nationalism, but it is also racially influenced. Which is why the holocaust happened. You see, radical nationalism does not have to be racial in nature, it can be ideological, such as the USSR. And in any case, radical nationalism does promote divide and hatred among mankind, what about moderate nationalism?

When I say radical nationalism, I mean support in one’s country, but without claiming that the nation is superior to others, or we should dominate the world. No, far from it, instead we also think globalistically, respecting our own country and also the rest of the world. And in my opinion, it is quite logical to support and respect your country. And you do not have to respect your government to respect your country. Even if your government is an imperialist authoritarian racist bigoted warmonger, you can always find solace, within your fellow people. It may seem weird that I have not mentioned respecting the idea of the nation, why is that? Tell me, what makes a nation, alive? What is one thing that is absolutely necessary for it to exist? Of course, its People, symbols and doctrines are meaningless if noone is believing in them. The government also comes from the People, as a result, when I say support your country, I mean support your People. Now if some people are still confused about this, I will elaborate further.

To be nationalist is not to be radical, or to be fanatical of a nation’s idea and symbols, perhaps in Indonesia that would be like the Pancasila, or the flag, or the idea of Indonesia itself. In this case, to be a nationalist Indonesian, you have to support the People of Indonesia. And thus allying yourself, supporting, and respecting your fellow People. This is very logical to do, how so? It is true that you never chose to be born in any particular country, but you are inevitably born in a country. Since we humans are not independent of each other, and we need others to reliably survive, that means we are morally obligated to help our People as they have, directly or indirectly so we can survive. We can say that we owe our People, and thus we must help them as well. However, this argument of an eye for an eye is not the only argument. A person, a human being has one specific moral obligation in this world, that is to live and become quality human being, and contribute their talents and their efforts to the society. Of course, it is best to start with people near you, and that means your nation.

Another point I have is that as you live, you can choose to leave the country or stay. And whatever you do, you will still be a member of a country. You will live out your life in a country want it or not. And perhaps you have an ambition, to be useful for society, well if you are starting out, your circle influence is not that large. However, it is certain that your country is in your circle of influence, so it is best for you to help out your country, that is your people. As if you can’t even help the people closest to you, that shares the same blood as yours, how can you help anyone else? As such, your best option for now is to support your people with what you have, and if you work hard enough, you may be able to influence your government, and then, once you have enough opportunities, and you’ve contributed enough to the country, you can contribute to the world. I have another argument, though it is specific to Indonesia, let’s hear it out.

Indonesia is a country that was formed with blood and sweat. No, that’s not an expression, it is earned with bloodshed, from the colonial crutches of the Dutch, other western powers, and also the Japanese. It means our country’s freedom is gained with heavy struggle, one that involves death, tragedy, and sacrifice. It is a hardworked freedom, not something bought or just given to us. As such, what we have now in Indonesia is our own effort, or at least of our fighters and heroes. As such, it is logical to respect our forefathers that have fought for our freedom, and thus all of our comfort and convenience. We are morally obligated to respect the struggles and bloodshed that was done, so we don’t have to feel the same. How can we do so? By making good use of our independence and freedom, not just waste it away, work hard, study hard, be a good human being and help improve our country.

Is that the end though? No, it is far from the end. The goal of nationalism is not to simply help your country and prosper the People, but it is merely a transition towards the next stage, globalism. The goal of humanity is to in the end, unite the world and create a prosperous mankind, where there is no suffering and scarcity. Nationalism is necessary in this, as if a nation can’t even be united, how can the entire world be? Furthermore, how can we help people of other countries if our own country is in crisis? Nonetheless, the main point is still the same, nationalism is not the final stage, it’s a transitory stage towards globalism, respect and support of entirety of humanity. That is all I have to say, have a nice day.