0 comment Sunday, May 11, 2014 | admin
Ilana Mercer, in an interview with David Yeagley at FreeMarket News, gives her thoughts on the meaning of patriotism:
I've lived in Israel, South-Africa, Canada, and even Europe for a short while, yet I've never felt patriotism in any of those countries. Granted, nowhere else have I felt as desperate about the dismal state of political discourse as I do in America. But that's because I care about America. So what is patriotism? Here's what it's not: it's not an allegiance to the government of the day, or to its invariably wicked, un-American policies. It�s an affinity for your community; it's an understanding of the great principles upon which this country was founded -- which have been excised by successive governments, Republican and Democratic alike. And it's a commitment to restoring the republic of private-property rights, individual freedoms, and radical decentralization.''
And further, on the concept of nationhood, Mercer says
We libertarians are often guilty of simplistic and vulgar individualism, in the words of Murray Rothbard. This includes an inability to distinguish the nation from the state. The former encompasses ''the land, the culture, the terrain, the people''; the latter ''the coercive apparatus of bureaucrats and politicians.'' '
While I don't often agree with libertarians on these issues, I can find little fault with anything Ilana Mercer has to say in this interview.
And as usual, David Yeagley offers his own unique perspective.
I've lived in Israel, South-Africa, Canada, and even Europe for a short while, yet I've never felt patriotism in any of those countries. Granted, nowhere else have I felt as desperate about the dismal state of political discourse as I do in America. But that's because I care about America. So what is patriotism? Here's what it's not: it's not an allegiance to the government of the day, or to its invariably wicked, un-American policies. It�s an affinity for your community; it's an understanding of the great principles upon which this country was founded -- which have been excised by successive governments, Republican and Democratic alike. And it's a commitment to restoring the republic of private-property rights, individual freedoms, and radical decentralization.''
And further, on the concept of nationhood, Mercer says
We libertarians are often guilty of simplistic and vulgar individualism, in the words of Murray Rothbard. This includes an inability to distinguish the nation from the state. The former encompasses ''the land, the culture, the terrain, the people''; the latter ''the coercive apparatus of bureaucrats and politicians.'' '
While I don't often agree with libertarians on these issues, I can find little fault with anything Ilana Mercer has to say in this interview.
And as usual, David Yeagley offers his own unique perspective.
Labels: Ilana Mercer, Patriotism