Thanks to Mahablog for this link to the Newsweek online article by Christopher Dickey on nationalism and patriotism, the differences between them and what it means for this country.

Here’s the Orwell quote that she highlighted.

“All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts,” said Orwell. “Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage-torture, the use of hostages, forced labor, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians-which does not change its moral color when committed by ‘our’ side.… The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”

The differences between the conservative patriotism of Paul Craig Roberts that drives him to write what I commented on in the last entry, and the Conservative Nationalism of Bush and his neo-con cronies and apologists are pretty well highlighted in that Orwell quote. It is no wonder that we cannot talk to bush supporters, their moral compasses are so screwed up by their jingoistic Nationalism that they cannot see what is before their own eyes.