The beleaguered battalions of nationalism face a similar
fate. With each passing crisis in world affairs, it becomes easier for the
citizen to distinguish between a love of country that enriches one’s life, and
submission to inflammatory rhetoric designed to provoke hatred and fear of
others. Even where it is expedient to participate in the familiar nationalistic
rites, public response is as often marked by feelings of awkwardness as it is
by the strong convictions and ready enthusiasm of earlier times. The effect has
been reinforced by the restructuring steadily taking place in the international
order. Whatever the shortcomings of the United Nations system in its present
form, and however handicapped its ability to take collective military action
against aggression, no one can mistake the fact that the fetish of absolute
national sovereignty is on its way to extinction.
- The Universal House of
Justice (From a message dated April 2002 to “The World’s Religious Leaders”)
