The fight for ideals can no longer take the form of fight between nations, because the lines of division on moral questions are within the nations themselves and intersect the political frontiers. There is no modern State which is completely Catholic or Protestant, or liberal or autocratic, or aristocratic or democratic, or socialist or individualist; the moral and spiritual struggles of the modern world go on between citizens of the same State in unconscious intellectual cooperation with corresponding groups in other states, not between the public powers of rival States.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Ideological struggles now happen between citizens within nations rather than between rival states due to shared moral lines.
- In plain terms
- Fights over values happen between people in the same country, not just between different countries.
- What can you take from it?
- Modern moral conflicts transcend national borders and divide citizens within states.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do internal divisions affect foreign policy?
- Where are the moral lines in your country?
Another view
Nations still act as unified blocks in conflict despite internal divisions.
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