Patriot Games
Patriotism. A vexing word. To some it symbolizes the emotional adulation of the state; to others it is nothing more than a politically correct nationalism where love for the state is conflated with love for the nation. Still, its power to inflame the emotions of a citizenry can’t be denied. It can be linked with any political, economic, or social system. All that is required, it seems, is a nation-state that portends to stand for the people as a whole, and by virtue of some ideological trickery, the people’s belief that they stand for it.
As Sergei Minaev notes in Kommersant Vlast’, patriotism seems to be on every leader’s lips and its meaning tends to be only illuminated through the the Other. “We are not like people in other countries, and we are proud of this.” “Assurances of a firm resolve to assert national interests at any cost and defend the ..read more
