Has there ever been a prosperous and successful country that has not put its own nation first?
There would seem to be a common pattern whereby preaching of values tends to fill in for actually living out those values (eg religion, performative virtue signalling, so-called "rightist" libertarians), and the whole "put our country first!" or "make our country great again!" seem to be strong examples of this.
No, they stagnate economically in corruption.
If you think this means "our nation over other nations" then you misunderstood. It means "nation above all", e.g. "everything for the government, above citizens". That is, forget the individual, there is a greater good for which we must endure some hardship, trust me.
FYI, the promised land never materialized, historically.
Which successful nation has eschewed the idea of the greater good?
(And to your point--this absolutely has been perverted in various cases to justify atrocious behavior! It is necessary but not sufficient in order to govern well and righteously and be a successful country.)
There is a weakness in democracies too, that if they are too tolerant and allow too much freedom, this can paradoxically undermine democracy itself and lead to a collapse.
So in general, western democracies tend to respect human rights, sacrificing the greater good, because this in itself is considered a greater good.
A distinction without a difference, the second automatically leads to the first, no exceptions.
> "everything for the government, above citizens". That is, forget the individual, there is a greater good for which we must endure some hardship, trust me.
Right, in addition to being a code for "we over the others", "nation above all" also provides the excuse for the social mobilization necessary for wars. Nationalism is a tool of war, it may start in some covert form but the end result is the same.