Monday, June 16. 2008
This is a re-posting from 2005:
Regular readers know that we are big fans of English political philosopher Roger Scruton. This is from a 6-page piece in the Intercollegiate Review this month:
Can there be a public spirit whose foundation is the internationalist idea? It seems at first that there can be. Some of the most public-spirited movements of our century have been expressly internationalist in their aims: the Olympic movement, the Red Cross, the United Nations, and the aptly named Médecins sans Frontières. Again, however, I do not think that any of these movements could have succeeded without the fund of national sentiment on which they drew—unless, that is, they take their inspiration, as does the Red Cross, from a religious idea. The Olympic movement seeks to bring about international cooperation through enhancing, rather than diminishing, national pride: for that is what competitive international sport requires. And as the Berlin Olympics of 1936 conclusively demonstrated, the result may enhance nationalist belligerence too.
Furthermore, public spirit is an attribute of nations. Not all people possess it in equal degrees. Indeed, there is a notorious difference between those people for whom family is the source and object of all social loyalty and those people who recognize the web of obligations to strangers. The Sicilians, being of the first kind, have often wrought havoc in America, where they have found themselves among people of the second kind, who are without effective defenses against them. And in the new international jurisdiction in Europe we find an interesting dividing line, which separates the Langue d’oc from the Langue d’oeil and the German-speaking from the Latin and Greekspeaking peoples. Above this line corruption is minimal; below it corruption is the normal state of affairs.
A serious read but well worth it: entire important essay here. If you need a reminder about langue d'oc and langue d'oeil, here's one.
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You know it's there, but you just can't find it, like wasting ten minutes looking for a great (in your memory) 2 year-old post - it's in there somewhere, but where? And filed under what category?Department of Complaints Department Department: Praise for M
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