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Showing posts with the label “the people”

Quote of the Week: 'The Voice of the People'

Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction. To have a good instance of qualitative populism we no longer need the Piazza Venezia in Rome or the Nuremberg Stadium. There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People…  Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances — every day, in every part of the world. Italian writer Umberto Eco, Ur-Fascism, The New York Review of Books,  1995

My Country

What is rational and irrational about someone saying 'my country'? Saying "my country" reflects a mix of logical human organization and emotional, instinctual behavior. Here is what makes this statement both rational and irrational: 👤 The Rational Aspects Using the phrase "my country" is a practical way to describe your legal, social, and physical reality. Legal citizenship:  You possess passport, voting, and residency rights in a specific nation. Tax obligations:  You financially support that specific government's infrastructure and services. Shared culture:  You understand the local language, social norms, laws, and history. Geographic reality:  It defines the physical borders where you sleep, work, and live. Administrative shortcut:  It is an efficient linguistic shorthand to tell others where you are from. [ 1 ] 🧠 The Irrational Aspects Using "my country" becomes irrational when it implies literal ownership, moral superiority, or biologic...