cosmopolitanism

FIFTH COLUMN
Of Marcello Veneziani
Even the physicist Carlo Rovelli wanted to align himself with the Permanent Theme: attack patriotism because it turns into nationalist poison, Nazi and racist, and sing praises to humanity without borders. He wrote a long article yesterday in Corriere della Sera entitled "The only nation is humanity".
But why do we have to translate love of country with its violent and racist degeneration, it is not possible to love and protect your own nation, their civilization without degrading into xenophobia and racism? When we talk about religion, perhaps we reduce it to fanaticism and religious persecution? When we talk about family, of paternal love, maternal branch, we must necessarily reduce it to the abuses and abuses sometimes committed in its name? And changing sides, because when we talk about equality we don't immediately associate it with the memory of the Jacobin Terror or the horrors of communism in all its regimes? Or when we talk about freedom we perhaps reduce it to the abuses of freedom that lead to violence, to drugs, to oppression and arbitrariness?
The patriotic love, the natural and cultural bond with one's nation and its traditions, it is a fundamental need of the human soul and belongs to every era and every civilization. There are various ways of understanding that bond. Today, the most coherent way is not to close oneself in armed tribes against each other, but integrate nations into broader contexts, like Europe, and recognize mutual legitimacy and value of nations, yours like mine. But you can love humanity starting from your own city, from their own land, from your country. Feel solidarity starting from those who are closest to those who are further away. Read More