Patriotism makes concrete the joining of the self to something that is external, larger than oneself, and abstract enough not to get too bogged down in details, but also immanent in one’s immediate surroundings, in the world one actually lives in. (Religion does this too.)
Globalist universalism is too remote. The individual makes his commitment to it, then resumes natural, ordinary, local life, but with a vital sense of belonging leached away. This is a terrible trap — or a convenient means of abdication. Either way, it does a nation no good.
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Consider for instance, to extend this line of thinking perhaps, how German Edith Stein was, how Spanish Teresa of Avila, how English Thomas More, how French Therese of Lisieux, and so on. All Catholic saints who maintained very universal views, yet were also deeply rooted in their own cultural and national milieus. Not gnostics, they.