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Entry: Patriots, Not Haters Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/real_patriots_dont_hate#9683 Post contents: When you talk about loving one's country, you might want to introduce into the discussion an old idea of Western Civilization: love is blind. For this reason, love was was usually depicted as a person with her eyes covered, who was guided by folly. This symbolism denoted the phenomenon that people in love could not see any flaws in the beloved -- literature abounds with sarcastic examples of this phenomenon. Worse still, love's desire to protect was so strong it caused an instinctive reaction of rage at any criticism of the beloved. These traits make strong love of one's country -- or of anything else -- counterproductive. The only way to improve is to be open to possible faults, so they can be corrected. If love grows so strong that it gets us instinctively to reject all criticism, then we will inevitably start slowly sliding down. Worse still, the hostility to negative feedback makes that slide practically invisible "from the inside." It thus may be that, counterintuitively, a true patriot who really wants to advance the interests of the US should be very cautious about not loving the country too much. It seems to me this is one of the points you make in the article, and the old psychology of love provides strong support for your argument. Sent at: 2008 08 30