The last week gave us serious food for thought. It turned out that a significant part of Bulgarian society has difficulty distinguishing between patriotism - love for the homeland and the sincere desire for it to be a better place, and the ugly national-populism that turns this love into hatred for the other.
This was commented on "Facebook" by Alexander Oskar.
Loving Bulgaria does not mean hating foreigners.
It does not mean feeling superior to other nations. It does not mean justifying aggression when it is committed by “ours“, or always looking for the blame in someone else.
The patriot sees the problems of his own society and wants to fix them. The national-populist always finds an external culprit - foreigners, minorities, Europe, “enemies”, always someone else. Thus, one's own mistakes conveniently become someone else's fault.
Patriotism unites. National populism divides.
Patriotism says: “I love my country and I want it to be better.“
National populism says: “My country is better than the rest and everyone else is to blame for our problems.“
History has repeatedly shown us how far national pride can lead when it turns into nationalism, and nationalism into hatred. It starts with words, with the search for enemies and with the division of people into “ours“ and “foreigners“. And when society accepts this as normal, the consequences can be catastrophic.
Being a patriot does not mean believing that your people never make mistakes.
On the contrary.
A true patriot has the courage to see the mistakes of his own society, to name them and to work to prevent them from being repeated.
Because love for one's homeland is not measured by the amount of hatred towards others, but by what one is willing to do to make it a better place for all who call it home.