Nationalism Is A Brand
Every history teacher I ever had was working, whether they knew it or not, as a brand manager. They spent their days shaping the perceptions that we, as students, have of this country based on what they taught. The brand has been built, tweaked, and solidified in our minds over several years, and as a result, we feel a sense of pride when we put little American flags on our cars, wear T-shirts, and bumper stickers.
Our sense of nationalism has produced all forms of swag, and we wear and display them with pride.
If you're an educator, you are a marketer, and if you're a marketer, you're an educator. Our perception of a product is based on how the brand has been advertised and marketed to us. The same is true for the country in which you live. I grew up having to recite "The Pledge of Allegiance" every single day in elementary school, the exact reason for which still hasn't been explained to me.
I don't believe that a love for your country is a bad thing, and that's certainly not what I'm implying here. Nationalism is a good thing in a lot of ways. I'm only pointing out that there is a lot of overlap between teaching and marketing. It's about developing a relationship, making a connection, and then leveraging the goodwill of that relationship in order to influence. There's a lot of power and responsibility implicit in those roles.
Marketers in the 21st century have found that it's extremely difficult to lie and get away with it. Traditional advertisers were able to control the message they broadcast about their product or service, and for the most part, recipients believed the message. That was how they managed to sell tobacco and crappy cars to us.
But we've gotten too good at detecting dishonesty for this to work anymore, and we've also recognized that companies have no incentive to be honest with us about their products. So, we rely on word of mouth and the testimonials of our peers. The importance of the author blurb and editorial review on Amazon is way less important to me than the genuine reviews of other readers.
I think educators might be facing the same challenge. Like most kids in America, I grew up learning about the United States from textbooks with a very one-sided perspective. They painted our country as being infallible, perfect, and iconic in the eyes of all other countries. But don't be surprised if, when those kids grow up, they learn that there's another side to the stories they were taught in history class. There's a chance that the blind patriotism you tried to teach those kids will backfire on you horribly.
I think the United States is a great enough country that we don't need to filter its history in order for people to love it. We've been far from perfect, and we've made some horrible mistakes. (Our treatment of the Native Americans comes to mind.) But those mistakes alone are not enough to undermine the value of our democracy.
Our sense of nationalism has produced all forms of swag, and we wear and display them with pride.
If you're an educator, you are a marketer, and if you're a marketer, you're an educator. Our perception of a product is based on how the brand has been advertised and marketed to us. The same is true for the country in which you live. I grew up having to recite "The Pledge of Allegiance" every single day in elementary school, the exact reason for which still hasn't been explained to me.
I don't believe that a love for your country is a bad thing, and that's certainly not what I'm implying here. Nationalism is a good thing in a lot of ways. I'm only pointing out that there is a lot of overlap between teaching and marketing. It's about developing a relationship, making a connection, and then leveraging the goodwill of that relationship in order to influence. There's a lot of power and responsibility implicit in those roles.
Marketers in the 21st century have found that it's extremely difficult to lie and get away with it. Traditional advertisers were able to control the message they broadcast about their product or service, and for the most part, recipients believed the message. That was how they managed to sell tobacco and crappy cars to us.
But we've gotten too good at detecting dishonesty for this to work anymore, and we've also recognized that companies have no incentive to be honest with us about their products. So, we rely on word of mouth and the testimonials of our peers. The importance of the author blurb and editorial review on Amazon is way less important to me than the genuine reviews of other readers.
I think educators might be facing the same challenge. Like most kids in America, I grew up learning about the United States from textbooks with a very one-sided perspective. They painted our country as being infallible, perfect, and iconic in the eyes of all other countries. But don't be surprised if, when those kids grow up, they learn that there's another side to the stories they were taught in history class. There's a chance that the blind patriotism you tried to teach those kids will backfire on you horribly.
I think the United States is a great enough country that we don't need to filter its history in order for people to love it. We've been far from perfect, and we've made some horrible mistakes. (Our treatment of the Native Americans comes to mind.) But those mistakes alone are not enough to undermine the value of our democracy.