Conversation #57: On Nationalism (October 28, 2018)

We’ve missed two weeks. Things have been very challenging: Grace is exhausted in the home stretch of this pregnancy; we’ve been slammed with huge expenses; the kids need rides all over the county; we’re still looking for some kind of clarity on what to do with our old house in Saginaw; Paul is sick of cleaning the kitchen. Last week we celebrated seventeen wonderful years of marriage. This week the creeping crypto-fascism of the last forty years is no longer creeping, and it’s no longer cryptic. And voting has been an inadequate response for decades —- of course you should vote, but it’s literally the least you can do.

Our topic, when we finally get around to it, is nationalism: what it is, what it isn’t, and why the love of a nation is not a sensible thing, and inevitably is perverted into the love of blood, or soil, both of which are distractions that hide the true fascist agenda, which is always empire. We contrast this with patriotism, which is a thing that a sensible person can feel —- but true patriotism carries with it responsibility, and sometimes the love of the patria needs to be tough love. And finally —- how will you know how and when to fight for the country you love?

How to Listen

You can find the MP3 file here.

The Podcast feed is here.

The Podcast channel on YouTube is here.

This Week’s Music

The music is a guitar track Paul recorded in 2013, originally intended to be part of a cover of Jonathan Coulton’s song “Shop Vac.” You can find the original here, and a live version here. (And yes, I used this music clip before —- in conversation 46).