Lithuanian nationalism has always been national, nurturing love – Respublika.lt

– Is love for the Motherland natural or more acquired?

– In a person, almost everything is acquired. A person is born without the ability to speak, he learns to speak. Of course, primary learned things can be called natural, because a person without language does not exist at all. Regarding the Motherland, it is much more complicated – if, for example, a child is born and will be taken to China, then he will be a Chinese patriot, an emperor. There is a high probability of this, because he will learn that language, absorb the traditions of that family, which are related to millennia of imperial civilizational memory and current politics. And that person will be a Chinese patriot.

When we talk about love for the Motherland, we need to understand what the content of the Motherland is.

– That content, where I was born, where I grew up and nurture values ​​and traditions?

– Where we were born is the birthplace, but the Motherland is not the birthplace, but something more. It is obvious that the Motherland does not exist without the birthplace. When we talk about love for the Motherland, and especially about patriotism, the question is how do we perceive it, why do we talk at all? Because it is necessary to defend the Motherland – this is the attitude. Defense of the Motherland is not well understood without patriotism. We take defense very seriously, and we need to sacrifice life. The life of a patriot seems to be of lesser value than the Motherland. But a person is brought up as an individualist, that his choice is the most important, you live where it is best to live, emigration is the best thing to get to know the world. Thus, a couple of ideological and very serious attitudes collide. Homeland is not a simple place of residence, after all, a person can live anywhere.

– After all, a lot of people return to Lithuania even after 10 years after living in other countries. Quite often they say: I felt like a stranger, no matter how well I lived. Lithuania is the best for me, I am my own here.

– Of course. Feelings of alienation and non-alienation are connected to larger things. That person felt like a stranger in another nation, another society. Hence, the Nation is natural, you feel at home here. When we start talking about the Motherland, we have to talk about who lives in it; who creates that Motherland, and why it is precious. We are born in a family, we learn a certain language, we learn Lithuanian, and with the Lithuanian language we absorb the whole sense of the homeland, the sense of relatives, the sense of family. After all, the birthplace is related to the family. Those things are very important and here are the essence and basis of patriotism. This is what a person defends at the cost of his own life: he defends his family, kindred, Nation. After all, patriotism does not exist without a sense of nationalism. But it does not exist without the sense of statehood, which needs to be developed. But you cannot develop a sense of statehood in such an abstract way, only for the territory of the Motherland. I emphasize – family, kindred, nation.

When we create a civil society, we suddenly started erasing things that are related to nationality and nationality. Nationality is related to statehood. A person is an individualist, his life is the most important, emigration and travel are the most important. Suddenly one remembers that one must also be a patriot. It is necessary to turn to this gradually, because you cannot convince a person to be a patriot, and you cannot buy patriotism. Can only buy mercenary. It is necessary to inculcate love for the homeland, love for the Nation, it is necessary to instill the awareness that the Nation creates the state. The Lithuanian nation is the founder and creator of the state. Of course, there is society, citizens and so on. Compatriots do not come from citizens, but citizens from compatriots. Nationalism is the glue of nationhood. If we call nationalism Lithuanian, it is almost the same. It is the glue of identity that binds people to a certain national community – it is related to language, customs, place of residence (origin). God given place.

There are nationalisms that destroy other peoples, this is considered evil because all nationalisms have a predatory root. Not at all! There are many different nationalisms, but Lithuanian nationalism has always been national, nurturing love for one’s language and homeland. We need to cultivate patriotism without fearing nationalism, because without nationalism you cannot cultivate a sense of statehood.

– Just need elementary love for your neighbor?

– This does not happen out of nowhere, when it is explained that the most important thing is the competition and how much is in your account. If this is the most important thing, what is the love of neighbor? If square meters of land are cleared from a neighbor… Of course, I’m talking jokingly, but I want to talk about an essential matter – the education system. It must be reinforced at certain levels, where love, a sense of homeland, national affairs, and a sense of statehood would be instilled.

But we install other programs that disrupt or destroy those senses. After all, a person does not exist without a certain historical memory, a person cannot exist without his biography. And what is the biography of the Nation? It is a kind of historical story about its origin, settlement in this place and such settlement that the place becomes sacred. Our school is “de-historicized”, the historical narrative is thrown out of the school. After the current reforms implemented in the education system, many of our historical main characters, who created the Lithuanian nation, who nurtured its self-awareness, no longer remain. Valančiaus is no longer in the programs, as far as I heard, and Čiurlionis has been kicked out of the programs Too much Lithuanianness is unnecessary for Vilnius… And now comes the love of the Motherland. First of all, love for the Motherland disappears, without a state policy and attitude, which must be introduced in the education system. in culture, impossible.

We live in an environment of slogans because we see what is happening in Ukraine. We see a national, national gathering of Ukrainians. Otherwise they would not sacrifice their lives. Because they realize that if they do not defend themselves, they will be destroyed as a nation. Or chased away. Dalia would be clearly told, either you sign that you are Russian and accept Russian citizenship or you will be taken to Siberia or destroyed. The extermination of the Ukrainian people is now the state policy of Russia.

In order to nurture our land, homeland, Motherland, we need to look back to the essentials: to the family, the Nation, the homeland and the state. The state, which is created by the Nation. And to understand that very clearly. Then it is much easier to cultivate love and patriotism.

– And what can we, ordinary people, do to strengthen patriotism, love for the country?

– For an ordinary person who is connected to the earth, there are still many sacred things, his homeland is sacred to him, and he will protect his family to the end. It is not that patriotism is disappearing from people. The only question is, does the state nurture those things with its policy, or does it destroy them? Our state is destroying for now, thinking that it is advanced and very European. Learning history programs means changing the consciousness of young people. If there is history, the consciousness will be completely different, there will be much more patriotism in that consciousness.