Paisleyspeaker
07-27-2006, 10:27 AM
Where does one draw the line between patriotism and nationalism? At what point is ones love of country become the stuff of facism and warfare? From what I have seen there are three camps : those who think of their country as some sort of mother or father land that knows best and must be protected, those who while they are proud, feel shame and question constanly , and the idiots who really hate it where they are but just won't leave.
Mark Twain called patriotism "supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it" and a patriot " the person who can holler loudest without knowing what he is hollering about". I think he got it.
Nationalism is scary. In April 2003 Laurence Britt, after studing the regimes of Hiltler, Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet and three other facists, wrote about the early warning signs of Facism. They are as follows: Powerful and continuing Nationalism, disdain for human rights, identification of enimies as a unifying cause, supremacy of the military, rampant sexism, controlled mass media, obsession with national security, religion and government intertwined, corperate power protected, labor power supressed, disdain for intellectuals and the arts, obsession with crime and punishment, rampant cronyism and corruption, and finally fraudulent elections.
Does any of this sound familiar? Sound like our current administration in a nutshell? With there actions from "if your not with us, your against us", to Gitmo's secret prisoners and practices, to the Partiot act it is obvious they are spinning out of control. When you add Haliburton & Enron, Fox News, Bush announcing that he and God talk to each other, and the Florida hanging chad; the big picture shows us bobsledding into perdition.
Mark Twain called patriotism "supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it" and a patriot " the person who can holler loudest without knowing what he is hollering about". I think he got it.
Nationalism is scary. In April 2003 Laurence Britt, after studing the regimes of Hiltler, Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet and three other facists, wrote about the early warning signs of Facism. They are as follows: Powerful and continuing Nationalism, disdain for human rights, identification of enimies as a unifying cause, supremacy of the military, rampant sexism, controlled mass media, obsession with national security, religion and government intertwined, corperate power protected, labor power supressed, disdain for intellectuals and the arts, obsession with crime and punishment, rampant cronyism and corruption, and finally fraudulent elections.
Does any of this sound familiar? Sound like our current administration in a nutshell? With there actions from "if your not with us, your against us", to Gitmo's secret prisoners and practices, to the Partiot act it is obvious they are spinning out of control. When you add Haliburton & Enron, Fox News, Bush announcing that he and God talk to each other, and the Florida hanging chad; the big picture shows us bobsledding into perdition.