Towards the end of his life (and throughout), Mark Twain had a few observations to make regarding “love of country”. Some would say they are still relevant today!
"You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from Winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rages - that is loyalty to unreason; it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it."
And...
"I suppose we must expect that unavoidable and irresistible circumstances will gradually take away the powers of the States and concentrate them in the central Government, and that the Republic will then repeat the history of all time and become a monarchy, but I believe that if we obstruct these encroachments and steadily resist them the monarchy can be postponed for a good while yet."
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John Greenman
<https://librivox.org/reader/107?primary_key=107&search_category=reader&search_page=1&search_form=get_results>
<http://archive.org/search.php?query=(read%20by%20John%20Greenman)%20AND%20mediatype:(Audio)>My Mark Twain audio recordings at Archive.org <https://archive.org/search.php?query=Audio+%22John+Greenman%22&sort=-downloads>+++++++++++++
Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
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