Water Cooler

It is both natural and admirable to commit to worthy aims,...

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but all should continue to be aware that the road to Hell is often paved with good intentions...

IMO the greatest danger to values we may hold dear are the actions of those with vested interests who seek to compromise those values by presenting ultimately "questionable" policies with an emotionally appealing "spin" (as patriotism, citizen pride, etc.) to both deflect attention from any areas of sensitivity and reduce any momentum for criticism...

Patriotism in itself is an obvious virtue... Patriotism used and manipulated to justify an emotional nationalism may simply be a feature used by the powerful to manipulate the masses until national infrastructure and cultural norms are established that will naturally suppress effective criticism....

There were no doubt many folk in 1930s Germany who were understandably attracted to a concept of cultural self-respect and pride in their nation, after the damage and defeat resulting from the First World War... Those self-same values of undeniable merit ultimately led to the rise of a militaristic administration, a damaging World War, the deaths of millions of their own and other people, and "The Final Solution" of concentration camp extermination of the Jews...

1930s Germany is an obviously extreme example, but it does, IMO, indicate possible results of a population simply assuming that if they automatically give an emotional approval on matters relating to a range of identified virtues that all would turn out well...

I suggest that whilst all individuals should naturally continue to keenly commit to aims of obvious worth, that we should all remain vigilant to ensure that in advancing the aims that we value that we are not also "throwing the baby out with the bath-water"...




Bill.

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