250 Years: The Pride of Fools
“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 happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms
Believe it or not, I spent a couple of hours writing a long post about nationalism and my feelings about the US. Then I recalled something an old, drunk philosophy professor once told us before an exam: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” So, I deleted it.
I’ve since learned that bit of wisdom was borrowed from Hamlet and dear Polonius uttered it in the midst of a rambling, witless speech. I’ll try to avoid that same irony.
We live in a time of renewed nationalism, and history is filled with examples of its inevitable and tragic end.
I just happened to be born here. I selfishly enjoy the privileges afforded me by a blue passport and a strong currency, but I’m not so naive that I don’t realize how we got here. I once toed the party line, wearing a uniform and spreading democracy 5.56mm at a time.
Diogenes famously referred to himself as a citizen of the world, coining the term kosmopolitēs. Until we reject arbitrary societal labels and embrace our shared humanity, we will continue to decline.
I’m not proud of what this country has done over the last 250 years. I’m ashamed of my small part in it. I dread what it will become.