Patriotism Versus Nationalism

George Orwell, writing in 1945

Since we have been discussing patriotism, I thought I'd post a link to this Newsweek Online article about an essay written by George Orwell in 1945. That was the year I was born, which definitely seems like a LONG time ago. It blew my mind how relevant his thoughts are today. The link is American Dream, American Nightmare . Below I give you two separate quotes from the essay by Christopher Dickey.

Orwell wrote that nationalism is partly “the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects.” He said it’s not to be confused with patriotism, which Orwell defined as “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people.”

. . . .

“All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts,” said Orwell. “Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage-torture, the use of hostages, forced labor, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians-which does not change its moral color when committed by ‘our’ side.… The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”

I think some oldies can surely be goodies.