http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/03/15/state-and-country/ n. the principle of good order<br /><br /> "Observe the strange inversion of all order and sense! Dignity debased; how vilely is the function of a consul prostituted!" ~The Craftsman Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:35:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/03/15/state-and-country/comment-page-1/#comment-9555 Eunomia » Countries, Nation-States And Regimes Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:24:18 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/03/15/state-and-country/#comment-9555 [...] State And Country  1 conradg [...] [...] State And Country  1 conradg [...]

]]> http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/03/15/state-and-country/comment-page-1/#comment-9552 conradg Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:23:30 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/03/15/state-and-country/#comment-9552 Perhaps it is neither the state, nor patriotism, that is at fault here, but over-identification with either one - or anything else for that matter. My own view is that when people become overly identified with anything - country, state, religion, family, football teams, you name it - they get into trouble.The more powerful that thing is, and the more people there are who over-identify with it, the more dangerous this can get. So people who overly identify with their country, their ethnicity, their religion, tend to go bonkers. Their "love" for these things transitions from being a normal, healthy love of oneself and one's friends/neighbors/countrymen/co-religionists - and becomes an unhealthy, even pathological obsession. History is made up of many such monsters, who took a normal, healthy inclination to love these things, and turned it into some grotesque perversion of love. None of that means that patriotism religious faith, or the state are monstrous creations, only that we can make them that way by over-identification with them. In essense, over-identification is a form of patholigcal narcissism, in which a self-image is made more important than the bodily reality of self and others. Perhaps it is neither the state, nor patriotism, that is at fault here, but over-identification with either one – or anything else for that matter. My own view is that when people become overly identified with anything – country, state, religion, family, football teams, you name it – they get into trouble.The more powerful that thing is, and the more people there are who over-identify with it, the more dangerous this can get. So people who overly identify with their country, their ethnicity, their religion, tend to go bonkers. Their “love” for these things transitions from being a normal, healthy love of oneself and one’s friends/neighbors/countrymen/co-religionists – and becomes an unhealthy, even pathological obsession. History is made up of many such monsters, who took a normal, healthy inclination to love these things, and turned it into some grotesque perversion of love. None of that means that patriotism religious faith, or the state are monstrous creations, only that we can make them that way by over-identification with them. In essense, over-identification is a form of patholigcal narcissism, in which a self-image is made more important than the bodily reality of self and others.

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