Citizens Pride, Vanity and Love to Motherland
Patriotism and
Nationalism
Values
To love our country is part of our common sense.
Politicians applaud that love, and promote it.
Education, the scholar’s spelling-books and the historic
data divulge the values and the examples of patriotism.
Citizens feel it as good and desirable. There are
nationalistic slivers in the common citizen.
We may say: it’s part of human nature. Nationalism is an
extension of the love to family, to clan, to tribe, to
ourselves. There are blood vows uniting patriots to
their flag. The Motherland is formed by our equals, by
those who speak the same language and share many common
values, tastes, interests, and contribute to a common
pool.
It’s natural, then. But not all of which is natural is
good (hate is also natural)…
Obviously we have the legitimacy of liking our country.
It’s not that that is at stake. What’s really at stake is to be a citizen of a country without being even more
a citizen of the world. It is to have pride and vanity,
it’s to think that the truth, the good, the reason and
the most brilliant history is associated with the
country where we were born, and that only our
fellow-citizens deserve our solidarity.
In this view, nationalism is ridiculous and dangerous
and is the cause of many wars and evils. And that may
justify the words of Albert Einstein and Bernard Shaw: «Nationalism
is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind»
(Einstein), «You'll never have a quiet world till you
knock the patriotism out of the human race» (Shaw).
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Quotations
Patriotism and Nationalism
What wisdom is yours if you don’t know that motherland is
nobler, more precious, more respectable and more sacred than
a mother or a father, or all our ancestors.
Socrates, in Plato Criton
Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of
the human race.
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, Physician, in H. Dukas Albert
Einstein, The Human Side
By blood and origin I am Albanian. My citizenship is Indian.
I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling I belong to the whole
world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the heart of
Christ.
Madre Teresa, 1910-1997, Missionary, in Observer 3/10/71
You will never have a quiet world till you knock the
patriotism out of the human race.
Bernand Shaw, 1856-1960, Irish writer, O’Flaherty V. C.
Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can
be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to
which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its
faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself
for his own inferiority.
A. Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher, Essays and
Aphorisms
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Thomas Paine, 1737-1890, Politician, The Rights of Man
The only and true State is the whole world. Do not close
yourself in states and nations, separated from each other by
their laws; instead, consider yourself and all men as
natural citizens of the world; life and world should be one,
as a bunch united by the law of common good.
Greek philosophers thoughts of Cynic school, in R. Mondolfo
O Pensamento Antigo
Português
