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Wednesday 2 July 2008

Patriotism and Nationalism

"If love is patriotism, then nationalism is courtship - the act of attempting to make oneself worthy to our love object. It is a consciousness of selfhood and a desire for self-improvement. It need not be aggressive or destructive. A species of racially-inclusive nationalism that is at ease with itself and the world is not necessarily a contradiction in terms."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Patriotism is, by and large, a tool given to or taken away from the people by its government and has, to a greater extent, always been as such.
With regards to South Africa during the Zulu war, the British government extolled the virtues of patriotism and nationalism to call for support of the war against the "savages". not the fact Britain was practically raping the country for its wealth and resources.
Patriotism is used again in the first world war to garner volunteers to join up and "do your bit".
Patriotsm is being used to "fight the war on terror" in order to invade countries, to bring in despotic laws and to excuse the treatment and disregard of basic human rights to 'insurgent prisoners'.

However on the other foot, the ideals of Patriotism and nationalism are denegrated when our government tries to intergrate Britain further into the European Union. Nationalism and Patriotism will not allow the loss or reduction of sovereignty.
It would prove nigh on impossible to allow Europe to take over British policy making without either taking away Patriotsm and National pride or cease being a democracy altogether.

Though please bare in mind, i am not taking anything away from the values of Patriotsm or Nationalism i am merely suggesting that you look at your reasons.

Possession is nine points of the law from 1:34:00

1:34:00  I chime in. 1:37:00  The narrow and wide interpretation of racism 1:40:00  It is racist to say black people are good at sport and d...