Wrong Ism Priestley Analysis

Our nation is not longer the nation of the American dream; instead it has become a melting pot for all types of wrongs against its own communities. Do you consider yourself a millennial, the generation that will change all that is wrong in our nation? People born in the late 80’s up until the beginning of the new millennium might be the answer to ratify every single wrong turn our nation has taken. Every day it is the younger generations that are taking a step forward, trying to restore what once was called, the greatest country in the world; certainly, it is only with the decline of our nation that this has been made possible. With an ever growing negative information by the media and the state in which we are inheriting our nation makes it

It is not so much that individuals are nationalist, but the wrong definition they have of the term that has led to it bringing a negative connotation to the term. In his essay “Wrong Ism” J.B. Priestley explains, “When a man says “my country” with real feeling, he is thinking about his region, all that has made up his life, and not about the political entity, the nation” (283). This way of thinking has a high scale of negative impact on how people see and react to what they believe to be foreign. In addition, nationalism has changed through the years to become an unstable and unhealthy way of thinking. Priestly adds, “If we deduct from nationalism all that is has borrowed or stolen from regionalism, what remains is rubbish” (283). Older generations have grown up with a preconceived idea of what being nationalist meant without realizing that the term was being used in the wrong demeanor making it useless and unsuitable to sustain a healthy nation. Furthermore, younger generations are seeing and perceiving this wrongful way of thinking more than ever and are taking a stand against it. A Times magazine article appropriately titled “The Kids Are All Left” reads, “But age is just a number, as they say. Millennials prize diversity and tolerance more

In his essay “America’s “Oh Sh*t” moment” Ferguson says, “Perhaps more disturbing is the decline of meaningful competition at home, as the social mobility of the postwar era has given away to an extraordinary social polarization” (294). In the life after major wars such as WWII that had America on its toes and being declared triumph, America let its guard down; subsequently, becoming lazy and without motivation. Moreover, social values are at an all time low, the nation should take prompt action to avoid devastating effects. Ferguson insists that “If what we are risking is not decline but downright collapse, then the time frame may be even tighter than one election cycle” (295). If this pattern continues our nation would be headed to disastrous events, and we would be inviting other nations to take over. Nevertheless, today’s generation is more inclined to go for what is worth having and worth striving, security, resilience and some competition against other nations to stay on top; hence, after a major attack on American soil, the kids of that decade are waking up and realizing what changes need to be made. As Hoagland discusses in his essay, “1776 and All That: America after September 11.”, “Some vertigo or “near death” experience of global warming may be required to trip the necessary degree of