Metropolis: City Life Then and Now
Charles de Gaulle once said, “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first”.
In addition to nationalism as a threat to patriotism, the taxi driver in “Wings of Desire” introduces the reader to a new threat to patriotism – self-patriotism. “Everyone carries his own state with him … and waves his one-man-state flag in all earthly directions.” While patriotism is the love of and pride in country and countrymen, and nationalism is a fear and ignorance of those who are not your countrymen, self-patriotism can lead to fear and ignorance – or nationalism — of your own countrymen. This leaves us to question if a society of self-patriots can survive with a cancer that is destroying them from within.
Liked it
