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About this quote

What does it mean?
Aggressive nationalism acts as a false freedom that enslaves people.
In plain terms
True freedom is not the same as aggressive nationalism.
What can you take from it?
Reject nationalism that limits true freedom.

Where it applies

  • political debate
  • citizenship
  • social movements

Putting it to work

  • question nationalistic rhetoric
  • advocate global cooperation
  • protect civil liberties

Questions to consider

  • Does your nationalism exclude others?
  • What is true freedom?

Another view

National pride can sometimes be healthy and unifying.

More from John Paul II (Pope)

  1. One discovers the common values of every culture, capable of uniting and not dividing.

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  3. Once again, through myself, the Church, in the words of the well-known declaration Nostra Aetate, 'deplores the hatred, persecutions and displays of anti-Semit…

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