The Oxford Dictionary defines jingoism as "extreme patriotism especially in the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy". Cambridge University describes it as, "the extreme belief that your own country is always best, often shown in enthusiastic support for a war against another country". It surged into existence in 1877 in the popular British tune By Jingo (MacDermott's War Song) by G.W. Hunt, which gives us the great refrain:
We don't want to fight but by Jingo if we do
We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too
We've fought the Bear before, and while we're Britons true
The Russians shall not have Constantinople!
"Jingo" was a euphemism for "Jesus" at the time and is possibly of Basque origin meaning "god". The term jingoism was coined by George Holyoake in a letter to The Daily News on 13 March 1878, referring to Hunt's song. Jingoism, along with its cousin yellow journalism, looks to sway people's opinion on aggressive national and foreign affairs, especially when it comes to using their military. The topics are varied, but the underlying motivation is the same. They include, xenophobia, intolerance, isolationism, expanded military crusades, and "us versus them" mentality, among other hot-button topics as they arise. Misinformation and conspiracies are often calling cards of those peddling in jingoism.
The first usage in the US occurred around the time of the Hawaiian revolt of 1893. Republican president Benjamin Harrison and Republicans in the U.S. Senate were frequently accused of jingoism in the democratic press for supporting colonialism. Even Teddy Roosevelt famously said, "There is much talk about 'jingoism'. If by 'jingoism' they mean a policy in pursuance of which Americans will with resolution and common sense insist upon our rights being respected by foreign powers, then we are 'jingoes'." He then proceeded to invade a peaceful foreign country, Cuba, in the name of removing "foreign" powers.
He, along with newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, fed a warlike hellscape in Cuba to unsuspecting Americans in order to initiate a war with Spain even though Cuba had all but won that war by then. As I wrote in my piece on Yellow Journalism for the Opednews, "Historically, one of the most infamous incidents with regard to the influence that yellow journalism practices had on the Spanish-American War is a short dialogue between William Randolph Hearst and his hired illustrator/Cuban correspondent, Frederick Remington. Upon his arrival in Cuba in January of 1897, Remington noticed that none of massive reported battles were actually happening. He cabled to Hearst: "Everything is quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I wish to return." Supposedly, although he denied it afterwards, Hearst quickly wired back: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."
Even Rudyard Kipling idolized US expansionism in 1899 when he penned the poem, "The White Man's Burden", basically extolling the US to take up the mantel of the empires before (British and Spanish). A few years later, Ernest Crosby wrote a scathing parody of that poem entitled, "The Real White Man's Burden". This was probably the first anti-jingoism jingoism ever recorded.
From By Jingo the song to 1938 Germany's jingo cries for Lebensraum (expanded living space) to Bush's "Either you're with us, or you're with the enemy", jingoism is supposed to make it an easy, "obvious" choice so that "true" friends can be distinguished from "real" enemies.
According to Wikipedia, "[The] strategic program for Greater Germany was based on the belief in the power of Lebensraum, especially when pursued by a racially superior society.. People deemed to be part of non-Aryan races, within the territory of Lebensraum expansion, were subjected to expulsion or destruction."
In the mid-1960s, the world was under the spell of The Beatles when John Lennon, the group's leader, was famously quoted saying that they were more popular than Jesus. He was merely pointing out that the Church in the UK had fallen in popularity. But in America, land of the hyperbole, this was misconstrued as Lennon thinking he's bigger than Jesus and the "Ban the Beatles" jingo began. Their tour of the south of the US in the summer of 1966 was met with record burnings, death threats, bullet holes in the fuselage of their airplane and a firecracker thrown at them during a live performance.
An article in RollingStone, "All four of the Beatles observed the initial firestorm with a touch of amusement. 'I must admit we didn't really take it too seriously at all,' McCartney told biographer Barry Miles. 'We just thought, 'Yes, well, you can see what it is. It's hysterical low-grade American thinking.' They were quick to point out that one had to purchase their albums in order to burn them. 'No sweat off us, mate. Burn 'em if you like. It's not compulsory to play 'em. So we took a balanced view of it.'" In no time, the US took jingoism to its next, violent level.
When the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 (which was meant to give both sides of an issue the same time on TV and radio), it paved the way for Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and others to flood the airwaves with far-right propaganda that not only muddied the waters of truth and morality, but allowed lies and conspiracies to dominate the daily conversation, the evening news and the day's headlines. Of course, many people with limited education and even less understanding of how things actually work, were far too gullible to this new onslaught of bad information and easily fell into their trap of straw-dog proposals with predictable and false conclusions.
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