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Entry: Race, Nationalism, and Patriotism, Part III: Patriotism Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/race_nationalism_and_patriotism_part_iii_patriotism#15870 Post contents: Mr. Richert, Thank you for your insightful posts. Richert: “In the case of patria, that group, as the Holy Father goes on to show, is the nation, which etymologically descends from the Latin natio, meaning, most broadly, a group of people, but more specifically a tribe, a race, a nation--in other words, a people who are connected, both genetically and culturally, in a way that is a natural extension of the family. “ Thank you for repeating what cannot be repeated enough. This historical truth needs to be reintroduced into the modern debate. Richert: “But the modern American experience is not normative--not only historically, but even today, among European-derived peoples. Europeans in Europe are much more rooted, and that close association with the land of their fathers--the patria terra, to return to the Latin--has a cultural (and, indeed, even a genetic) significance that has largely been lost here in the United States.” This is very true. I knew a French girl whose family had ties to a town for around 500 years. When her father said “This is my town and I don’t’ want Algerians here,” he truly had a claim. Europeans (maybe with the exception of the Germans, who have been bombarded with political correctness), I’ve noticed, are much less squeamish than Americans when evoking patriotism or race. They have a real sense of blood-and-soil patriotism, largely absent in the U.S. except perhaps in parts of the South and Midwest. Sent at: 2008 09 06