Solidarity Doesn't Have To Mean Prejudice

There’s a fundamental difference between positive patriotism and negative nationalism. Positive patriotism is taking pride in your country. Negative nationalism is looking down on other countries.

-- Yuval Noah Harari

The lesson here is that ingroup solidarity doesn’t require outgroup prejudice.

You can love your people without hating others.

-- Adam Grant

From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a b****.’

-- Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut

Why do we have to keep reminding ourselves that it is US who keep politicians in power (you know, “we the people”)?  

We’re the ones who have to ask, are they truly promoting the ideas and actions that help make us a better society (some certainly are)?  Or, are they simply using racism to appeal to the vagaries of our base-instincts (fears)?