The city ought to be the most sacred word in politics. We imply this in the very fact that when we want a word to express a patriot who is not always thinking exclusively of other countries, a patriot who is sometimes thinking of his own country, we call him a citizen. When we want a universal word we go back to the old small area. Any man can be a citizen of the world; the most cowardly and profligate adventurers can be that. Any man can be a citizen of an Empire [...] Any man can, even in the modern atmosphere, be without much discomfort the citizen of a nation; even I am that. But our old civilization offers us the sterner and severer test. Can I be the citizen of the healthy, separate, self-governing city, without getting my head knocked off? There are times when I doubt it. In any case, all energy ought to come from the municipality. Political passion ought to begin in municipal politics and so boil up to Imperial politics. Patriotism begins at home.
-November 10, 1906, Daily News
[Coincidentally, just a couple hours after reading that passage, I discovered that Dion DiMucci (a fellow Chestertonian who has referred to GKC as one of his heroes) just released the other day a song that is itself a reflection of local patriotism, a duet with Paul Simon called
"New York is My Home", about which he said
"When I wrote 'New York Is My Home,' I thought this is a way to have New Yorkers fall in love with their city all over again."]
2 comments:
Good post. I wonder if I ought to write a song about my home town so people fall in love with it. :)
Yes, do it! I would love to see what you come up with. :-)
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