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I guess culturalism has a point...

Reader comment on item: Europe's Civilizationist Parties
in response to reader comment: Patriotic Nationalism vs. the Uncivilized

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Nov 3, 2018 at 23:24

There is a continuum between anyone's amour propre and a dangerous chauvinism. It dismayed me greatly when I was in China to encounter people who expected an American with a German last name to have a "warm spot" for Hitler (and those people even spoke well as of him as someone who had revived his country); and when I explained the horror of the holocaust and that I had uncles who served in the US Army in Europe in WWII, I think I left the impression that I (and General Eisenhower, and however many American soldiers) were some kind of "ethnic traitors".

On the other hand, in Taiwan, I knew a man who was an unabashed Chinese Nationalist every which way, who, when I asked why he identified with the Christian faith as well, gently reminded me that in the Tang Dynasty, China's heyday, his country (understood as the poor, occupied Mainland as well) was the one that received immigration and studied new religions while being Number One in the world.

I admit to being one who believes that our prejudices are often necesary, protective walls. But it is also my prayer that our "walls" also have sufficient doors, windows, and other apertures to admit what might also be good coming to us from outside. Now that a savage anti-Semitic event has rocked our own Pittsburgh, I am painfully aware that even a good amour propre can be turned in an evil direction.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (23) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Regarding the UK and Spain [520 words]RobertNov 4, 2022 02:43288222
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Nice analysis [127 words]
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2A fourth point wrt [336 words]PrashantNov 14, 2018 00:09245912
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Nationalist [24 words]Jan BlachaOct 31, 2018 21:46245755
Re: Nationalist [32 words]Globe ThrotterNov 9, 2018 15:02245755
Nationalism [21 words]John BlachaNov 9, 2018 17:04245755
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Hinge of History [181 words]JD WillOct 19, 2018 11:19245576
2What Needs Protecting And Why [237 words]DaveOct 18, 2018 21:10245557
1Patriotic Nationalism vs. the Uncivilized [184 words]RobertOct 19, 2018 00:43245557
1Yes, Nationalism Takes Many Forms [167 words]DaveOct 20, 2018 20:15245557
2Dialectics of Nationalism [275 words]RobertOct 22, 2018 16:16245557
2How Virtue Becomes a Vice [63 words]DaveOct 24, 2018 09:19245557
I guess culturalism has a point... [243 words]Peter HerzNov 3, 2018 23:24245557

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