Donald Trump and Dictatorial Taste

[JasonBlack]

(07-07-2022, 08:36 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: It's a good statement. Of course Twain lived in an age of nationalism. As I see it, I can support all the countries of the world, and the people there in need, as I can or choose to; not just mine. I support my country because it is where I live and it's my responsibility. I pay my taxes, I vote, and I have worked as a sworn precinct voting official because I believe in the country's elections and the right of everyone to vote regardless whether I agree with them, unlike most Republicans today who do not. But I don't see my country as more-deserving of support than others are from their own citizens, or as necessarily better than other countries, or any deserving of lording it over others--- with the second phrase added. My country is really the world, and Twain was a good citizen of the world, to the extent that he understood this in his time.

Moral universalism seems to be a staple of idealist generations. Both the hippie and hawkish neocon branches of boomers exhibit it, as did the abolitionist Transcendentals (who had an even stronger presence in England than in the United States), the evangelizing Puritans and the Missionaries on their expeditions of the same name.

You'll have to forgive me, but I'm way too poor to share the sentiment. For me, it's friends/family before community, community before country and country before world. Anything else is trying to juggle 7 balls before you can even juggle 3.