David Rothkopf Quotes

He who would dare to undertake to establish a nation would have to feel himself capable of altering, so to speak, human nature, to transform each individual, who by his very nature is a unique and perfect whole, into a mere part of a greater whole, from which this individual would in a sense receive his life and his being.

Society exists for the benefit of its members, not the members for the benefit of society.

The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.

Just as every girl should have a husband, preferably her own, so every culture must have its state, preferably its own.

A Pole must accept everything Polish, both good and bad,..

The relative absence from the national [Japanese] character of egotistical individualism has been the saving of an empire; has enabled a great people to preserve its independence against prodigious odds.

Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.

Human groupings have one main purpose: to assert everyone’s right to be different, to be special, to think, feel and live in his or her own way. People join together in order to win or defend this right. But this is where a terrible, fateful error is born: the belief that these groupings in the name of a race, a God, a party or a State are the very purpose of life and not simply a means to an end. No! The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and in his right to these peculiarities.

I've always been opposed to groups. I can't believe the doctrine of group is going to work for every single person within the group.

A lack of affiliation may mean a lack of accountability, and forming a sense of commitment can be hard without a sense of community. Displacement can encourage the wrong kinds of distance, and if the nationalism we see sparking up around the globe arises from too narrow and fixed a sense of loyalty, the internationalism that's coming to birth may reflect too roaming and undefined a sense of belonging.

America is a mosaic not of groups but of individuals, each of whom carries a host of cultural influences, some chosen, some inherited, some absorbed by osmosis. That mosaic is held together by the pursuit of happiness, the most powerful mortar ever conceived. Left alone, it will long endure.

A second characteristic of our time is the prevalence of nationalism. This is still spreading, affecting new communities, more peripheral regions and so-called backward peoples.

We talk a lot about individual rights, but in fact Americans are very willing to give up our individual rights if it means our property values will be protected, and so on.

I think we have a rawer version of capitalism and a more fragile community and family base than other nations. We are a more individualistic culture. From the Boston Tea Party on, we've had too little faith in government.

Throughout America's young history there has been a necessary tension between the individual and the group.

I think it is the responsibility of a citizen of any country to say what he thinks.

Russia right now is searching for its soul. It is trying to figure out what it is.

Traditionally, the ideology of the United States nationhood perpetuated the myth that immigrants would shed their particularistic ethnic identities and loyalties. Eventually these “strangers” would be assimilated into a homogeneous body politic that was based on the equality of individual rights.

Americans want individual freedom and yet they want strong communities. There is some contradiction there.

The modern idea of citizenship goes some way to accommodating the tension between solidarity and diversity. Citizenship is not an ethnic, blood-and-soil concept, but a more abstract political idea - implying equal legal, political and social rights (and duties) for people inhabiting a given national space.

The country is the people.

… half-formed pseudo nations

If citizenship means anything, it means sharing the pleasures and pains of American life.

The French will only be united under the threat of danger. Nobody can simply bring together a country that has 265 kinds of cheese.