March 29, 2026

Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American physicist, in Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Albert Einstein, The Human Side (1979), Jay p. 129

MEDITATION: How do you define nationalism? What about patriotism? What is the difference between them? How are they similar?

COMMENTARY: The truth of this statement is demonstrated by the fact that nationalism—a by-product, along with so many other “isms”, of the French Revolution—led to much of the carnage of the twentieth century—amounting to anywhere to between 85 and 107 million deaths—both military and civilian—in both world wars.

That led to the birth of the post-1945 world order designed to avoid any more such carnage. The absence of major multinational wars in the last eighty years is the mark of the success of that world order.

My point? The current trashing in some quarters of the post-World War II international order is an encouragement to the revival of the very worst aspects of nationalism, the infantile sickness of the human race, according to Einstein.