(A Twitter thread posted by Grace (@graceisforyou) that we wanted to share.
“Nationalism is good because gratitude is good. Nationalism is simply gratitude that overflows from observing the little details that make your home distinct from some other home. It’s gratitude that you belong somewhere, and that somewhere belongs to you.
Nationalism is scary to people who want power because they know when people belong to something, they fight for it. If the people who love a place know what they have is precious and unique and can’t be found elsewhere or replaced with anything else, they’ll die to preserve it.
Interchangeability is the lie of soulless strategists who see human beings as resources, national mythos as child’s play, and land as mere real estate. They would like everything to be interchangeable.
Interchangeable genders. Interchangeable words. Interchangeable currencies. Interchangeable goods.
Interchangeable food. Interchangeable neighborhoods. No boundaries to anything, no roots, no essences. There is nothing less romantic, less stirring, than interchangeability.
Those who see the human being as a machine have the least romantic story to tell about where we’ve been or where we’re going: strategy and logistics, development and Progress. Since we are machines, we couldn’t possibly have come from the dust, couldn’t belong to the land.
Nationalism is the ability to see the romance in human history. Nationalism is mythos carried from the ancient past into today. It’s knowing the roots of all our family trees are in real soil. We shape the land, the land shapes us. A nation in a country, a country in a nation.
Loving your nation is as natural as loving a generous and good parent. It’s a love you shouldn’t have to explain or apologize for. The way the soulless strategists are trying to *beat* this natural affection out of our brains shows how powerful a love of nation can be, how real.
I’m sad that I was ever for a second tricked into feeling guilty about being an American. I’m sad that many people are still tricked into thinking America isn’t worthy of honor, so that their natural and proper affection for her can be beaten out of them.
America will never be Heaven on earth. No place on earth can be. But all of earth will be a living hell if we are deceived into abandoning our good and natural affections for the places we call home while we’re here.
