Comments on: A rambling post about patriotism and “home” http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/ Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:07:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Hugo Schwyzer http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/#comment-448336 Hugo Schwyzer Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:53:09 +0000 http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/#comment-448336 No. What I'm saying is that breaking the law needs to be for a very specific set of higher purposes. Breaking the law as part of a campaign against injustice (civil disobedience) is acceptable, I think -- breaking the law for personal pleasure (using cocaine) is not. No. What I’m saying is that breaking the law needs to be for a very specific set of higher purposes. Breaking the law as part of a campaign against injustice (civil disobedience) is acceptable, I think — breaking the law for personal pleasure (using cocaine) is not.

]]> By: Funt Of A Thousand Faces http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/#comment-448321 Funt Of A Thousand Faces Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:12:29 +0000 http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/#comment-448321 "I owe obedience to the state only insofar as the demands of civil authority do not conflict with my higher duty to Christ." Are you saying that one must never break the law even if doing so would be in the name of Christ? “I owe obedience to the state only insofar as the demands of civil authority do not conflict with my higher duty to Christ.”

Are you saying that one must never break the law even if doing so would be in the name of Christ?

]]> By: Hugo Schwyzer http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/#comment-447525 Hugo Schwyzer Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:08:36 +0000 http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/#comment-447525 I'd translate it more literally as "small-mindedness". One of the pejorative meanings of the word "small", after all, is a kind of nativist parochialism that is indifferent at best and suspicious at worst of outsiders. I’d translate it more literally as “small-mindedness”. One of the pejorative meanings of the word “small”, after all, is a kind of nativist parochialism that is indifferent at best and suspicious at worst of outsiders.

]]> By: charlotte http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/#comment-447523 charlotte Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:01:53 +0000 http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/09/03/a-rambling-post-about-patriotism-and-home/#comment-447523 Try being German and saying you're proud of it (and *not* inviting the Heil Hitler comments ...). When I first came here, I thought of the flag-waving and "I love America" as weird and buzzwordy. It made me uncomfortable. Then I became an American citizen (for work purposes) and thought that discomfort would change, but I still roll my eyes at the same things. In my intellectual history (overeducated, old-Chevy driving, feminist, and registered Democrat), "patriotism" = close to militarism and crack-downs on dissent, whereas "love of native culture" = one of the fundamental constituents of personal/ cultural history. That's why, when folks in California talk about the wall on the border to Mexico, etc., I like to remind them that their part of California used to belong to Mexico, and that nothing about a country, really NOTHING, belongs to one person more than another. So, I agree with you that borders are artificial and produce, as we say in German, "Kleingeist" (don't know how to translate that--perhaps "closed-mindedness"?). Try being German and saying you’re proud of it (and *not* inviting the Heil Hitler comments …). When I first came here, I thought of the flag-waving and “I love America” as weird and buzzwordy. It made me uncomfortable. Then I became an American citizen (for work purposes) and thought that discomfort would change, but I still roll my eyes at the same things. In my intellectual history (overeducated, old-Chevy driving, feminist, and registered Democrat), “patriotism” = close to militarism and crack-downs on dissent, whereas “love of native culture” = one of the fundamental constituents of personal/ cultural history.

That’s why, when folks in California talk about the wall on the border to Mexico, etc., I like to remind them that their part of California used to belong to Mexico, and that nothing about a country, really NOTHING, belongs to one person more than another. So, I agree with you that borders are artificial and produce, as we say in German, “Kleingeist” (don’t know how to translate that–perhaps “closed-mindedness”?).

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