3 Responses

  1. Morgan Freeman makes an awful lot of sense. He clearly understands the concept of cultural identity as the sense of 'simply being American', because that would be the key point in trying to understand American cultural identity: the shared values of American society as a whole, shared by everyone who lives there. And the fact that most Americans, whatever their ethnicity is, can rally behind these same concepts and the American flag to protect these values if need be.

    I think that is the way it should be. That is clearly where patriotism/cultural nationalism are different to integral(totalitarian) nationalism: When nationalists start equating cultural identity with 'purity of race', something more ominous is going on. Because totalitarian nationalism rather focuses on the dismantling of the shared values (like democracy) nations in general hold dear, rather than taking up the gauntlet for preserving democratic values and serving the nation's interest !

    And that is why people in the West need to understand that Islam for instance, runs contrary to our values, because it is a totalitarian ideology as well, rather than a religion.

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