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About this quote

What does it mean?
Patriotism is framed as a higher moral evolution where loyalty extends to large groups beyond personal acquaintance.
In plain terms
Loving your country is like extending loyalty to a large group you don't know personally.
What can you take from it?
Patriotism extends moral loyalty to the group.

Where it applies

  • citizenship
  • community building
  • national identity

Putting it to work

  • foster group cohesion
  • balance local and national loyalty

Questions to consider

  • Is loyalty to a group always good?
  • How large is too large?

Another view

This definition can justify harmful nationalism.

More from Robert A. Heinlein

  1. Evolution is a process that never stops. Baboons who fail to exhibit moral behavior do not survive; they wind up as meat for leopards.

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  2. Behaving on a still higher moral level were the astronauts who went to the Moon, for their actions tend toward the survival of the entire race of mankind.

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  3. The next higher level is to work, fight, and sometimes die for your own immediate family. This is the level at which six pounds of mother cat can be so fierce …

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