On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 10:01:28 +0100, Marie Lewis wrote:


"devil" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 03 Apr 2004 23:27:54 +0200, AJC wrote:

Patriotism can be a great force for good and bad. Throughout history
extremists on the left and the right have used it to their advantage.

Excitation of nationalist feelings is always bad. "Patriotism" is just a
convenient word to make it sound otherwise.

No matter what, it's an "us vs. them" thing.



The Frenc have a word for it: chauvinism. That is what we are seeing in the
USA now: "my leader right or wrong!"

That's not really what chauvinism is though.

Chauvinism is more like a grassroot feeling that "we" are the center of
the universe. A belly button thing. Sure, beside France, there are a
number of parochial places like that, usually realtively large countries,
which the world is perceived as far away from. Among places where I lived
that felt like that, obvious places include Brazil and the US. With
France retaining its benchmark status of course.