Famous Quotes by Isaiah Berlin:
- “Few things have done more harm than the belief on the part of individuals or groups (or tribes or states or nations or churches) that he or she or they are in sole possession of the truth.”
Rise of Nationalism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democrats-need-an-antidote-to-nationalism/2019/04/11/0ba94fe2-5c95-11e9-a00e-050dc7b82693_story.html
Zakaria notes:
“In fact, despite
the pose of victimhood adopted by most of these populists, nationalism is
probably the most widely held ideology in the world today. Which American
politician today does not speak up for the United States? The real debate is
whether nationalism should be informed and influenced by other values such as
liberty and equality and, if these two sets of values conflict, which one
should be preferred. That’s why the most ardent capitalists — from Friedrich
Hayek to Milton Friedman — have always been in favor of globalization and
economic freedom above nationalist protections and controls.”
Nationalism is back, but nobody seems to
know what it means.
Historian ROBERT ZARETSKY notes:
“Yet, among the
many isms formed in the crucible of the French Revolution, nationalism proved
to have greatest lasting power. From communism to totalitarianism, socialism to
liberalism, it is the last great ism standing. For Berlin, the sources of this
durability reside in our very nature. “The desire to belong to a community or
to some kind of unit, which … has been national in the last 400 years,” Berlin
once said, “is a basic human need or desire.” This, for Berlin, was less an
argument than an acknowledgment—it is, quite simply, how we are built. The need
for community is the common grain running through the crooked timber that
constitutes humankind”.