March, 2008

Parting Shots

To Kukathas
State power to do harm must be diminished, certainly. But though the state does a great deal of harm when it is powerful and self-confident, the state as such is a necessity. Call it the lesser and necessary evil: without it there would be an extent and depth of insecurity that would make life [...]

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Final Thoughts on Patriotism

by William Galston
The Conversation
March 26th, 2008

Discussions of this sort are more likely to end in clarification of differences than in agreement. In his latest post, for example, Kateb says that “Love of country that expresses itself in killing and dying is not love at all, but some fantastic delusion.” I cannot believe that Kateb really means the full sweep of [...]

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Last Post from a Whiskey Patriot

by Chandran Kukathas
The Conversation
March 25th, 2008

Would the world be better off if no one were a patriot — as Professor Kateb suggests? Even in the United States in 1941-45? On one reading of Kateb’s analysis, the answer must be yes. If no one in the world were a patriot, there would, presumably, be no one wanting to fight for [...]

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Declaring Victory

by Walter Berns
The Conversation
March 25th, 2008

I think that I can now declare victory and, so to speak, go home. Professor Kateb now rests his case by making my argument. He says, as if I had said, patriotism’s “most important meaning is that unreserved loyalty to one’s country in a time of war — whatever one’s country is — is to [...]

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