Patriotism
is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other
than your own comes first. - Charles de Gaulle
Nationalism
is a silly cock crowing on his own dunghill. -Richard
Aldington
It
seems to me a lot of people are using the words “patriotism” and “nationalism,”
interchangeably. I beg to differ, as these words are not synonyms. Sure, I get
that some people use them as such but, given our present national conversation
where so many are touting the glories of nationalism and others are hearing
“patriotism” when they shouldn’t be, I think it’s time to clear up our
language, as well as to ask others to define their terms.
As
I understand these two mindsets:
Patriots
are proud of their nation’s culture and accomplishments and, at the same time, are
aware of its failures.
Nationalists
only tout their nation’s glories (real and imagined) but are willfully blind or
indifferent to its failures.
The
antisemites who called themselves patriots introduced that new species of
national feeling which consists primarily in a complete whitewash of one's own
people and a sweeping condemnation of all others. – Hanna
Arendt
Patriots
generally respect the accomplishments and cultures of other nations.
Nationalists
belittle, resent, and are belligerent toward other nations and cultures.
Nationalism
is an infantile thing. It is the measles of mankind. - Albert
Einstein
Patriots
are proud of their nation’s achievements, but they never, in dealing with other
nations, seek to “achieve” at the expense of morality and justice.
Nationalists
give no thought to right or wrong: only to what advances their nation’s
interests.
Nationalism
is power hunger tempered by self-deception. - George Orwell
Patriots
admire and appreciate their way of life and, if needed, will fight to defend
it.
Nationalists
want to force other nations to adopt
their nation’s way of life.
Patriots
have a sense of “national responsibility.” (Adlai Stevenson)
Nationalists
take no responsibility for and give no thought to the effects their nation’s
actions have on other nations, as they couldn’t care less.
Nationalism is the last refuge of scoundrels. - Winston Churchill
Patriots
place duty to God, family, personal integrity, morality, and justice, high on the
list of their life’s priorities, which, in turn, governs their approbation of or
obedience to the state.
Nationalism
is a political religion: the worship of a particular state that commands its
citizens has no other gods before it.
Pervading
nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with
an aggressiveness that spares no one. The challenge that is already with us is
the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of
slavery. – John Paul II
Nationalism
is idolatry. It is also the hubristic whitewashing of evil, a lust for blood
(metaphorically or literally), a justification for injustice, the validation of
greed, and the road to destruction. Patriots hear calls for nationalism as a
harbinger of evil and will do her or his all to stand against it.
Or so I believe …
Copyright,
Monte E Wilson, 2016
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