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Of course the nation as a community of people in 1b also includes the government, but you can hardly say the nation understood in this sense is hostile. What yo
by dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
Of course the nation as a community of people in 1b also includes the government, but you can hardly say the nation understood in this sense is hostile. What you can say is that the government is hostile - we have proofs of that. We can also say that some minuscule percentage of the population is hostile - we can see some evidence of that. But to say that a nation is hostile is really crossing a red (no pun intended) line.
I'm discussing this apparently insignificant issue ad nauseam only because repeated conflation of government and citizens in discourse, media, and ultimately our minds are not without consequences.
- zepto 6y ago> but you can hardly say the nation understood in this sense is hostile I don’t see how you can make this claim so strongly. The government is not independent of the people even if it is authoritarian. Any hostility enacted by the government will necessarily involve the people. Governments need people in order to do anything. A government without people can speak hostile words, but can’t be hostile, because by definition it can’t do anything if it isn’t governing anyone.
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y agoWhat you say is of course true of democracy, but has nothing to do with totalitarian systems and dictatorships.
- zepto 6y agoI can’t see any way what I said doesn’t apply equally to totalitarian systems and dictatorships. You will need to explain.