Often it takes those from outside our countries coming in to see not only our ignorance that comes from the bigotry of xenophobia, but moreso in the current era, the bigotry of sentimental, pseudo intellectual suicidal empathy perverted into oikophobia. The latter is most common among the historically "Christian" west.
This attitude is always attractive to the native born educated privileged bc the enlightened global citizen heart that transcends the unglamorous, distinction-making duty of preserving nationhood always feels so virtuous and compassionate when it talks to itself, meanwhile, beginning with the decimation of the working classes (made up of many races), our nations' self-destruct from within due to neglect/avoidance of basic things that require vigilence, common sense, & fully engaged courage & love of one own shared culture & heritage contra "the world."
Its the same process one goes through when they forsake living as if life is an eternal Friends episode and get into the business of raising a family, owning property, & providing for their own "national interest". The love & compassion remains, but it grows up & becomes real through "forsaking all others" 💍 👉🏼focus👈🏼 & piroritization of one's own household vs. everything and everybody else. A bunch of people from all walks of life and socioeconomic conditions doing this in a specific geographical region is what a nation consists of.
This ofc introduces a tension to a globalist's compassionate heart, but it's a tension to embrace & live through instead of despising it and casting it aside in a sea of highminded prose. This is why in the Bible, we are told to "love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt 22:37) AT THE SAME TIME that we are told that "whoever does not provide for his immediate family is WORSE THAN AN UNBELIEVER, he has denied the faith." (1 Tim 5:8).
The blindspot, as many immigrants who often sacrifice life & limb to come to the West see clearly, is that the very things that the over educated natives take for granted, defining as heartless decision making ala their favorite "ism" words, are the very things that have allowed the good things to exist that immigrants come here for in the first place, which is why so many are often shocked at how ambivalent we natives are about what it takes in the real world to maintain & preserve these blessings. Things like democratic process, rule of law, freedom of speech, social mobility, productive economies & infrastructure, generational wealth, et al.
As the late, brilliant, Roger Scruton wrote:
"The seeming loss of national loyalty is a feature of our political élites … who have repudiated the national idea…
No adequate word exists for this attitude, though its symptoms are instantly recognised: namely, the disposition, in any conflict, to side with ‘them’ against ‘us’, and the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably ‘ours’.
Being the opposite of xenophobia I propose to call this state of mind oikophobia, by which I mean (stretching the Greek a little) the repudiation of inheritance and home.
𝐎𝐢𝐤𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞—𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲—𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝.
As George Orwell pointed out, intellectuals on the Left are especially prone to it, and this has often made them willing agents of foreign powers."
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Roger Scruton, England and the Need for Nations
