In recent years, we are increasingly confronted with this concept. It appears with surprising consistency in the speeches of politicians, in topics of public discussion, in discussions about the problems of the country and people. Often chauvinism and nationalism in our minds are closely intertwined. Some people consider them synonyms. What is chauvinism? Let's try to figure it out.
Interestingly, the term itself comes from the name of the veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, Nicolas Chauvin. Bonaparte dreamed of the world fame of France. He sought to create a militarily strong empire, adding more and more new to it.
state. On the
altar of this glory, he laid a whole generation of French. However, even after the defeat of the emperor, in spite of all the sacrifices made to please his ambition, soldiers fanatically devoted to him remained in the country. One of them, the aforementioned Nicolas Chauvin, so blindly and stubbornly defended Napoleon, categorically not perceiving the arguments of reality, that his name became a household name. Chauvinism began to mean ultranationalist views, which were based on the idea of the superiority of one nation over others.
Russian chauvinism (French, German or any other) in this sense represents the most radical and aggressive trend of nationalism. As for the latter, its definitions today are quite vague: from the self-identification of a person and a group of people with a certain nation (a sense of unity of purpose and historical path), to the manifestation of an all-consuming love for this nation and, in this regard, the manifestation of aggression towards people of another nationalities having a different skin color, eye shape and so on. If we continue to study the meaning of the term, it turns out that today it is used in other areas not related to interethnic relations.
Chauvinism - what is it socially?
Along with the manifestation of intolerance and aggression against people of a different nationality, we all faced the manifestation of chauvinism against people of a different gender. Most often, men show it in relation to women. In addition, some social categories of people show it in relation to other categories. Intolerance is often accompanied by deliberate discrimination, which, as we know, can exist both for people with disabilities, people who have not reached a certain age limit, and those who have certain political convictions.
Chauvinism - what is it in biology?
There is also the so-called species discrimination, when one biological species infringes on the interests of another species, being convinced of its own species superiority and the priority of its interests. Simply put, such chauvinism is definitely manifested by man in relation to animals. Also interesting is the phenomenon of carbon chauvinism. What it is? There is nothing to do with discrimination. This type of chauvinism belongs to the field of the science of cosmosology and the search for extraterrestrial life. The fact is that all the life forms studied by modern scientists on earth are based on carbon. Moreover, all biological organisms of our planet are composed of the same substances that are most common in the Universe (hydrogen, oxygen, and so on). This determines the popularity among modern scientists of the idea that extraterrestrial life forms should also consist of these compounds. And assumptions about some other forms based on silicon, for example, are categorically rejected by some scientists. Which led to the emergence of the concept of "carbon chauvinism."