U. S. Nationalism is the most dangerous of all nationalisms. It is a nationalism based on artificial grounds, on the idolatry of ideals and on the collective trauma brought on by the barbarism of the civil war. In reality, the united States is not "one nation" but a federation. The nationalist identity springs from the identification with a society within its ecological environment. This is why nations don't have great territorial areas. As environments change from region to region, regional identities also change.

    The united States cover many different ecosystems, from Alaska to Hawaii, from Puerto Rico to New England. In a natural progression, the inhabitants of each of these regions will develop their own national collective identity. It is an historical fact that this is what happened when the southern states developed a different national identity from the northern states. Unfortunately, the secessionist desire and struggle of these states was combined with the fight to preserve the nefarious institution of slavery. A just cause - national independence - was amalgamated with an unjust cause - the preservation of slavery.

    The civil war was extremely savage. Millions of people died; the southern states were devastated. The psychological trauma was terrible. Uncle Sam astutely had the blame for this tragedy placed not on federal government imperialism, nor on the slavist philosophy of the southerners, but on "secessionist nationalism." In that way, this natural nationalism was turned into "something evil" in itself, in a collective trauma of historical proportions.

    Taking advantage of the situation and to satisfy the need for a collective national identity, the federal government invented the great lie of U. S. Nationalism. Before the civil war, for example, there were two federal flags: a military one and a civil one. Moreover, the military federal flag only flew over federal military installations, and the civil federal flag flew only over federal civil facilities. Over state facilities, the only flag that flew was the state flag, exclusively, the one with which the inhabitants of each state identified politically and emotionally. After the civil war, the federal civil flag was forgotten and the federal military flag was imposed on every government facility, whether military, civil, federal or state.

    Natural nationality is not based on ideologies, but on the natural love the individual has for his native soil and the society established there. U. S. Nationality, however, is based on the adoration of certain ideals, on the so-called "American Dream," as if this were the exclusive property of the American union. This is an idolatrous nationality, based on fear of the natural nationality, one which has been sold to Americans as the "U. S. Nationality." It is a great lie, based on a terrible historical trauma.

    Due to the fear that sustains it and the mistaken idea that the united States is the "headquarters for liberty and justice in the world,"  U. S. Nationality has become an irrational force that cannot look at itself objectively, but fanatically claims superiority over every other culture or nationality. It is deathly afraid to look at itself. Suddenly to discover that the aspirations which supposedly make up the very foundation of U. S. Nationality are not really the exclusive property of the American People, but rather that they're part of the cultural heritage of the world, threatens the very essence of said nationality. Justice, freedom and the pursuit of liberty are everyone's property. Every nation of people, including for example, the Vietnamese, who fought against the United States not so long ago, have always held these values to be their own.

    If we put aside the pathological fear of natural nationality, if we accept the fact that the great values of the so-called American Dream are really the property of all the nations of the world, then, what do we have left as a U. S. Nationality? If anything, maybe we could refer to what is called the "pop culture," and even that isn't an American cultural asset, but rather is also something common to every industrialized nation, from Japan to Germany, from Finland to Chile.

    When we look at the really defining elements of nationality: folklore, religion, history, economy, language, etc., we'll see that each region, and frequently each state of the union, has its own features which identify it from among the other regions and/or states. The only thing many of these regions or states are lacking to become nations, sociologically speaking, is to break away from "the pathological fear of proclaiming its own nationality," which originated in the tragedy of the civil war, which was instigated by Uncle Sam.

    The united States, then, due to the tragedy of the civil war, is made up of a series of nations which due to their historical trauma do not dare to proclaim their own nationalities, and they continue to be subjected to the great lie of a "sole national identity" proclaimed by the Central Government and undergirded by the great interstate and international economic interests.

    This great lie of the "Sole National Identity" promotes an artificial nationalism characterized by: (1) the idea that the united States is the "most just and the most democratic and most perfect country in the world,"(2) that the rest of the world is going from bad to worse and (3) consequently the United States is "justified" in imposing its culture, political system and domination on the world. Obviously, this nationalism serves the imperialist interests of the federal government and it "authorizes" it to impose its dominion internally (over the states of the union) as well as externally (over supposedly independent and sovereign nation-states). Due to the pathological fear of facing up to the tragedy of the civil war and the errors committed in it, the U. S. Nationality refuses to engage in self-evaluation and self-criticism. This characteristic prevents it from overcoming its own defects.