“The trouble with patriotism – besides being a refuge for scoundrels – is that the ties that bind one patriot to another are abstract and largely phony. What we really appreciate about America, for instance, is not the facts of it – they are too diverse – but the idea. According to a book we wrote along with Pierre Lemieux in 2003 called The Idea of America, the original concept was that a person in America could do what he wanted without having to ask permission from the government. That theory made the US different from any other country. That theory still appeals to us. But in practice, the US is now much more like everywhere else than different from them.”
http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/amor-patria/
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