The red-white-blue 'n' bar-be-cue (& fireworks) fumes from the 4th of July have faded into the ozone. Now is a good time to share some thoughts regarding this deeply ingrained mental and emotional disorder called patriotism.
"Imagine there's no countries / It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for / And no religion too." - John Lennon
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Naturally
the common people don’t want war . . . Voice or no voice, the people
can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders . . . All you have
to do is to tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists
for lack of patriotism. – Hermann Goering
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That
worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor . . .
This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible
speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome
nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism–how passionately I hate
them! – Albert Einstein
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How
much longer are we going to think it necessary to be “American” before
(or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being
humane, & having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized
countries? It is really too easy a disguise for our shortcomings to
dress them up as a form of patriotism. – Edith Wharton
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God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed. – Luis Buñuel
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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 glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail,
thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority. – Arthur Schopenhauer
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You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race. – George Bernard Shaw
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