The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Orwell observes that nationalists often ignore or refuse to hear about atrocities committed by their own side.
- In plain terms
- Nationalists do not care about bad actions done by their own group and pretend they do not hear about them.
- What can you take from it?
- Nationalist bias can blind people to their own side's wrongdoings.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How can we avoid bias in conflict?
- Why do people ignore their side's faults?
Another view
The quote generalizes about all nationalists without exceptions.
More from George Orwell
Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception.
Permalink to quote #105 The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thought…
Permalink to quote #107 By 'nationalism' I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millio…
Permalink to quote #104
Related quotes
Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. 'Patriotism' is its cult. It should hardly be necessary to say, that by 'patriotism' I mea…
Erich FrommErich Fromm quote #22 But this means that we also need to build our home and make it strong and well protected. We see, after all, what is going on in the world. 'The Comrade Wolf k…
Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin quote #23 To shut our eyes to the part that John Smith plays in the perpetuation of unworkable policies, in building up the forces of which he becomes the victim, is to …
Norman AngellNorman Angell quote #23