First, I think he forgets a very basic principle. The lethality of every poison is in the dosage. As a conservative, I’m perfectly happy to admit that I think Somin’s argument could be deployed, to one extent or another, on pretty much every ism, creed, and concept. We all understand that too much authoritarianism, socialism, nationalism, etc. can be terrible. But we should also understand that too much freedom, too much democracy, too much individualism can be terrible too. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t contend that the right amount of these things is smack in the middle. I don’t think we should split the difference between say authoritarianism and freedom. The knob should be set far over to the freedom side of the scale, just not all the way at ten.
via On Patriotism and Nationalism – By Jonah Goldberg – The Corner – National Review Online.
Just part of the conversation of today.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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