The part about the Nationalism and 'Jewish Question' debates caught my eye. As a teacher, I wonder how these discussions help foster a more tollerant and open society.
A good question that begs one in return: What exactly do you mean by "tolerant and open society"? Naturally it is a phrase repeated into everyone's minds for decades, but it is rarely defined. Does it mean a cordial and polite people? An open-door policy? "You'll own nothing and be happy" society? Something else entirely?
In my experience most people who support a "tolerant and open society" do so out of a sense that such a society is generous, kindly, curious, magnanimous, and prosperous through its willingness to learn from and exchange with the outside world. A "Glittering Generality" as the rhetorical phrase goes that opposition to seems absurd because it seems like a purely positive proposition.
Nationalists want a wonderful society much like that too, but Nationalists also realize you can't have a pretty flower without healthy roots, and to have healthy roots you have to understand what hurts the roots and take steps to protect them from damage. Appreciating the qualities and consequences of other peoples to our society is as fundamental to a Nationalist as understanding what ladybugs, bumblebees, earthworms, and slugs do in a garden ecosystem.
So, how do you define a "tolerant and open" society, and why is that desirable to you?
The part about the Nationalism and 'Jewish Question' debates caught my eye. As a teacher, I wonder how these discussions help foster a more tollerant and open society.
A good question that begs one in return: What exactly do you mean by "tolerant and open society"? Naturally it is a phrase repeated into everyone's minds for decades, but it is rarely defined. Does it mean a cordial and polite people? An open-door policy? "You'll own nothing and be happy" society? Something else entirely?
In my experience most people who support a "tolerant and open society" do so out of a sense that such a society is generous, kindly, curious, magnanimous, and prosperous through its willingness to learn from and exchange with the outside world. A "Glittering Generality" as the rhetorical phrase goes that opposition to seems absurd because it seems like a purely positive proposition.
Nationalists want a wonderful society much like that too, but Nationalists also realize you can't have a pretty flower without healthy roots, and to have healthy roots you have to understand what hurts the roots and take steps to protect them from damage. Appreciating the qualities and consequences of other peoples to our society is as fundamental to a Nationalist as understanding what ladybugs, bumblebees, earthworms, and slugs do in a garden ecosystem.
So, how do you define a "tolerant and open" society, and why is that desirable to you?