The savage who loves himself, his wife, and his child with quiet joy and glows with limited activity for his tribe as for his own life is, it seems to me, a more genuine being than that cultured shade who is enchanted by the shadow of his whole species.... In his poor hut, the former finds room for every stranger, receives him as a brother with impartial good humor and never asks whence he came. The inundated heart of the idle cosmopolitan is a home for no one....- Johann Gottfried von Herder
We all like to
enjoy relaxed and friendly unpretensious time of a national holiday but sadly
some hooligans turn these days into racist harassment of minorities.
You could say that patriotism is Janus faced phenomenon,. At times it calls for freedom and then its dark face of patriotism verges on fanaticism. Warriors all to often claim they fight for freedom. But freedom for who?
Patriotism can
also be expressed as an exclusive pride not just reactionary hype. To my mind, a
person who stands up for what is tight – in the hope of redirecting attention
to a peoples noble intentions is more patriotic denouncer of any justified
critique.A democracy of equality, community and
pluralism. The risk is that as markets tighten a renewed dogmatic adherence to
ideology will arise under a pseudo claim of pragmatism.
I have said for nearly 15years we were
approaching a historic cycle a kin to the 1930’s with its risk of nationalist
fervour, abused misuse of history to marginalise decent and the demand for new
resources.
The idea of the nation state as we know it
is relatively new, developed around the French revolution . But since Wordl War
II we can no longer assume a nation has some a collective to agreed view point or historical ideology.
Most myths are full of holes even though we
don’t want to collectively admit it.
Gordon Brown and Sarkozy tried to push
their version of history. Now Vladimir Putin demands the return Crimea to Russia. John Howard had his photo under a wattle tree as he
tried to unify the idea of national identity and shared Australian Values
(whatever they are?).
One value may be a respect for diversity.
However, this
value in itself implies a cohesive genuiness to that shared ideal that as David
Goodhart reminds us could turn on the champions of this open hearted value.
Hmm questions to ponder ...
