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Entry: Nationalism is What We Need Now--The Case for an "Unpatriotic Conservatism" Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/nationalism_is_what_we_need_now_a_case_for_an_unpatriotic_conservatism#23384 Post contents: Mr. McCarthy has written in the past some wisdom. Not today. Disturbing and obscurantist. I remain with Orwell’s and Lukac’s definitions, not the author’s attempt to exchange the definition of one for the other. (And I am take by surprise to find myself in some agreement with Mr. Richert in this matter, he otherwise often my antipode.) I go further: All nationalism is “hubristic” by definition; patriotism isn’t. And we have heard before, in the <i>Volkische Beobachter</i>, how “a dose of nationalism” would save use from undesirables, then the Bolsheviks, now the Muslims. It didn’t work then; it won’t work now, and the putative cure was as bad as the disease. Spare me. Nationalism/tribalism/retribalization caused two world wars, the mess in the Balkans, the mess in Ireland, the mess in Palestine; it ended the royal houses of Stuart, Hannover, the Two Sicilies; and Catholics have often been accused of undermining "the nation", as in France 1906. Reason enough to damn Nationalism, and all its works, and all its vain promises – and to damn it utterly. And demonstrated evil remains evil, and not a “preferable alternative”. And just what constitutes a “nation”? Richelieu’s critera? Cromwell’s at Drogheda? Bismarck’s? Cavour’s? the Whig’s of 1688? Dishonest Abe’s? These men with sword and jackboot forced peoples with very different histories and extremely different interests into a faux “nation”. I in North Carolina have a nothing in common with Massachusetts, Minnesota, or California. Indeed, I have more in common with Austrians, Argentines, and Italians. Mr. McCarthy, at least in this matter, thus proves himself to be a Whig, an ideology currently denominated “neo-conservatives”. Frankly, if one were to take some of the author’s good principles seriously, he would have made the case for The League of the South. Rather than a “dose of nationalism”, The West needs to think of itself as a common heritage, one to be shared if possible, and defended if not. It also needs the Catholic Faith. Cf. De Maistre, <i>Du Pape</i>. Sent at: 2008 05 16