Day 86: Patriotism

Evening meal with more friends regretting their return to America after a year Paris:

• Nehm de crabe
• Salade de crabe royale
• Cheesecake (partagé)
• Pouilly-Fumé 

By now I'm assuming you can guess what my position is on Patriotism.  It's definitely up there in my top 5 disastrous human concepts along with Religion, Inheritance, Facebook and Hot Showers.  It is sad to see nations like the US, France, Italy and the UK who have taken pride in having invented or developed concepts of democracy and human rights now treating human beings who happen to have the wrong passport with cold hearted contempt. There are over 500 million people in the EU and there were around 2 million migrants last year.  That is less than 0.5% of the total population  (and the proportion is similar in the US).  Even if we doubled our intake of migrants that would be less than 1% of our population. I'm not sure why Patriotism is always used to defend mean spirited policies.  Why can in not be patriotic to be generous ?  Isn't the point of Patriotism to make people proud of their country? Are their people who are proud of the fact that they refuse to help people in need.  In France there is a law which allows the state to prosecute people who do not help people who who are in a state of danger (Non assistance à personne en danger). The maximum sentence is 5 years.  Why is our President still walking free in view of his refusal to help people who are stranded on sinking ships at sea?