Nationalism in Sports

Three Serbian players made it to the semifinals of the French Open. Now, Serbia is a very small country, and its recent history hasn't been conducive to producing world-class tennis players. Therefore, this is a remarkable event.

It has set off an explosion of national pride in Serbia. Being a second-generation American of Eastern European descent, I'm not at all surprised to hear the crowing from there. Bohemians would be doing the same thing, especially under similar conditions of recent national shame.

But the tremendous accomplishment of Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, and Novak Djokovic is the tremendous accomplishment of Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, and Novak Djokovic. Hands off it, people!

In most nations of the world, when one of their people does a great thing, the people of their country all try to grab a piece of the glory. They prance around like THEY did it. Well, they didn't do it. The doer of the deed did it.

Yet the entire populace thinks it proves something to the world about how grand their kind is. This is the root of nationalism. Let it die. It can manifest on the flip-side of that coin as negative nationalism, such as in denigrating some other kind of people.

Which amounts to the same thing - (in so many words) claiming your kind is better.

This negative nationalism we see when we see people rejoicing in the defeat of a player just because he or she is, say, an American. It's supposed to prove something, like say that those Americans ain't so hot = your kind is better.

George Orwell explained it well in his essay Notes on Nationalism. Nationalists view everything that happens through the prism of an almost religious belief that their kind is inherently superior and therefore is on the upgrade to triumph. On the other side of that coin, they view everything that happens in the almost religious belief that some other kind, a hated rival, is inherently inferior and therefore on the downgrade to ruin.

It's as simple as that: everything that happens is somehow viewed as proof of this irrational belief. Which is why sporting events make such good excuses for gross displays of nationalism.

Which, as Orwell explains, has almost nothing in common with patriotism.

This pollution among the fans affects many tennis players. For example, the pressure put on a British player who gets through the first two rounds at Wimbledon is tremendous. The pressure put on French players in the French Open is perhaps even worse. They feel the weight of their nation's pride on their shoulders.

The British I think mitigate it a lot by having an impeccable sense of humor about it. But it's hard to say who did worse at the French Open this year, the Americans or the French.

Victory has nothing to do with nationality. These three Serbs are a joy to watch. They overcame much adversity to get where they are. The praise goes to them alone and to those who helped them.

But apparently it's necessary to state the obvious: They did it because of what kind of human beings they are, not because of their nationality.

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