In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
~~ Charles De Gaulle ~~ (1890 - 1970)
That’s exactly what they do! I think they intentionally come up with titles such as ‘public servant’ to make the people feel good. LOL
Now, when a politician is elected to any office, it’s usually for a certain number of years and , therefore, the contract is essentially like that of an employer and employee, so they could call themselves ‘public employees’. But no, they call themselves ‘public servants’ and act like masters. It’s only a rare politician who contests an election to become a servant; most of them only pose as servants to get elected to the positions that have powers and privileges of a master.
The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.
~~ Charles De Gaulle ~~ (1890 - 1970)
Very funny and true. It’s usually the politicians, though there are others as well, who portray themselves as indispensable as if the world will come to a halt or cease to exist if they are gone. Time has shown, as evidenced by the burial of countless so called indispensable men, that the world is quite resilient and is not dependent on any one individual or even a group of individuals.
Nature made the law that everybody, without any exceptions, must ultimately die. The only unknown is when, where and how. Nature obviously doesn’t consider anybody indispensable; rich, poor, powerful, powerless and even those who claim themselves to be messengers of God with special access or connection to God, must die.
When any individual who thought himself to be indispensable ends up in a cemetery, there usually are a lot of others willing and able to fill in the shoes. And the world keeps humming along as usual. On a greater scale, nature doesn’t seem to consider even the entire human race as indispensable and even Earth existed long, long before humans showed up. So to portray or consider any individual as indispensable is a lot of stretch.
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
~~ Charles De Gaulle ~~ (1890 - 1970)
This, in my view, is a true and classic definition of the difference between patriotism and nationalism. The line between the two becomes very fuzzy because those who espouse the feelings of nationalism almost never openly admit their hatred towards others.
There is nothing wrong in being a patriot and to love your people or country and apply your efforts to improve their lot in life. While doing that, a patriot harbors no feelings of ill will or hatred towards other peoples or nations.
Nationalism, on the other hand, has less to do with improving the lot of one’s own people or nation and more to do with the hatred of others. It essentially conceives others as evil who can do nothing right or useful. Nationalism is a very negative and dangerous concept.
