A fantastic writer and political commentator.
All over the world, individuals love to love their countries. Last month’s fervor over the World Cup is evidence of this, as is the slew of global revolutions where protesters proudly disobey police and government in the name of the freedom of their nation.
Loving one’s country is a human habit formed from a desire to identify with where we came from and with a group. The nation is not a vague, intangible object but an active, dynamic identity that encompasses language, culture, and shared history. It is why the French are so… “French,” and Americans so proud of their 1776 revolution and individualistic history. A nation is separate from its government. Government and nation can often overlap, but neither needs the other to survive. Palestinians have a nation without a state and the Soviets had an all-powerful state with an effective ban on the Russian national identity.
Often, when a national movement overcomes…
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