3 ms·
Nationalism is a disease of the mind that is among the most pernicious. I am vocal about this whenever the issue arises. The trick, of course, is convincing th
by cryoshon 11y ago
Nationalism is a disease of the mind that is among the most pernicious. I am vocal about this whenever the issue arises.
The trick, of course, is convincing the proles. For the most part, people understand tribalism, but not humanism. Perhaps intellectually a small fraction of people will agree that strong moral feelings about their country may lead to brutality, but most will not assent to the idea that any tribe is as vulnerable to committing genocide as any other.
- clock_tower 11y agoI'm certainly no fan of tribalism; but if you think in terms of "convincing the proles," you can probably answer your own question as to why you can't persuade anyone.
- cryoshon 11y agoThe concept of proles is just a convenient shorthand that I used; I assume most people fit the bill as selling their labor for a living, the conventional definition of proletarian. The admission that most people can but won't think for themselves drives my thoughts on this matter. There is a large segment of the population whose media diet consists of middlebrow newspapers, talk radio, and primetime television-- these media will absolutely never divest them of a tribal mindset.
- jacquesm 11y agoIf only it were that simple. A fair percentage of the ultra-rightwing voters in NL are university educated. You're not going to get too far if you label everybody that votes for these parties as people that 'won't think for themselves'. They do, they just end up with the wrong conclusions for all the right reasons.