Nationalism as the root of all evil

Submitted by Ben Arkin (United States), Apr 2, 2003 at 00:26

If you... read the texts of your nation's forefathers, you would realize that these Columbia academics - and others - are fighting a battle against the abandonment of independent thought. The founders of your nation never intended patriotism to rally blindly around the flag as nationalism, they intended patriotism to fuel the engines of democracy, open dissent, and respect for humans as equals.

The right and the left are both equally guilty of rallying people to their substantive cause rather than to the principles that undergird a democratic society.

Fight De Genova on his extremism, not his message.

-From a friendly Canadian neighbour

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".