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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
A belated welcome, Cursquid. (No relation to a Dogfish, I suppose?) I've missed all this whilst I've been moving house. (Strange expression: my old house is exactly where it has been this last three hundred years - it is I who have moved.)
I have always read the Arthur C.Clarke quote as being an anti-nationalist remark, and have liked him all the more for it. I believe that nationalism has been the cause of many more evils than the pursuit of money - and goodness knows that is plenty. I must here make a differentiation between nationalism, which is an excessive belief in the worthiness of your own country/race, to the extent that anyone or thing from anywhere else is, ipso facto, inferior, and patriotism which is a love of the country of your birth or adoption.
The latter is right and proper, and good. It makes you cheer your side in football matches, etc, and feel homesick when you are "abroad"
The former tends to lead to the excesses of racism.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4 |
The quote is getting more inspiring! I'm not very sure if cheering your side at a football match is exactly what I think of as being "good", (does this include throwing Molotov-cocktails at the other side?) but indeed nationalism is definitely bad. World unite in a vacuum!
Cursquid
PS
Congratulatiosn with the new house. I don't know if the expression is wrong: what if man actually can't move at all and the entire universe is spinning like mad to give us
the illusion of self-motion? It's practically possible...
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
[rant]
While I share your opinion of nationalism, I think few today would observe the very fine distinction you draw between nationalism and patriotism. My Chambers defines a patriot as: "One who truly, though sometimes, loves and serves his fatherland." If I remember the quote correctly, it says: "patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings." Many who call themselves patriots are fond of the phrase "My - my country right or wrong, but always my country," which G.K. Chesterton described as being on the same moral level as "My mother, drunk or sober." It is not my intention to offend anyone, but the subject of nationalism/patriotism is one of very few that I feel so strongly about - both are anathema to me. Whether it should be so or not, it seems to me that the development of the nation-state has led to patriotism and nationalism becoming synonymous, at least in practice, if not in theory. As I type this I am listening to "An die Freude" - so that might be firing my supranationalist passions a little. I will close with a quote from G.B. Shaw that illustrates the apparent synonymity of patriotism and nationalism:
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior
to all others because you were born in it."
[/rant]
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
the new house. Yes, it is new, really - it was only built in c1870, whereas the one I was in previously was built c1690 I don't know if the expression is wrong: what if man actually can't move at all and the entire universe is spinning like mad It could be, in this case, that I am static in time as well as space, and both are moving past/around me. 
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
next thing you know, you'll have slipped into solipsism, in which case you'll need a new thread... all to yourself... alone.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
next thing you know, you'll have slipped into solipsism, in which case you'll need a new thread... all to yourself... alone.But how would he know that the thread existed? 
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 197
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 197 |
But how would he know that the thread existed But how does he know he's not already there? 
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