{"id":893,"date":"2019-01-01T14:28:43","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T14:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/?p=893"},"modified":"2019-01-01T14:28:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T14:28:43","slug":"patriotism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/01\/patriotism\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriotism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ibi G\u00e1bori - The testimony of a Hungarian Canadian Auschwitz survivor\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eLbckvPvR2Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A very moving testimony by a very beautiful soul.<\/p>\n<p>The story, as Ibi G\u00e1bori notes, we all know already, from books and movies.<\/p>\n<p>Lifelong, this gifted, intelligent, sensitive human being has loved music, books, people, the Hungarian language, and Hungary. She lost everything \u2014 mother, father, brother \u2014 but survived and became a librarian, as she had always wished, first in Hungary, then in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>And she holds no rancour in her heart, just sadness, gratitude and hope.<\/p>\n<p>One understands (or thinks one understands) it all: the love of music, books, people, language. These are all real, and deserve this love. The love of a place \u2014 land, landscape, landmarks \u2014 too. These are all real things.<\/p>\n<p>But when it comes to love of a \u201chaza\u201d (patria, nation) one balks.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from those other real things, this abstraction is a fiction, and a fiction \u2014 like gods, angels, devils and supermen \u2014 that has already done enough real harm in this world not to deserve Ibi G\u00e1bori\u2019s gentle, heartfelt loyalty.<\/p>\n<p>As she says, some of her expatriate countrymen loudly proclaim that they are eager to go back and vote for Jobbik, to start it all over again. Some don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Ibi\u2019s heart still gives patriotism the benefit of the doubt. It still swells not only at the sound of Mozart but at the sound of \u201cOh Canada\u201d \u2014 and \u201cIsten \u00e1ldd meg a magyart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She has earned the right to judge \u2014 and we to reserve judgment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A very moving testimony by a very beautiful soul. The story, as Ibi G\u00e1bori notes, we all know already, from books and movies. Lifelong, this gifted, intelligent, sensitive human being has loved music, books, people, the Hungarian language, and Hungary. She lost everything \u2014 mother, father, brother \u2014 but survived and became a librarian, as &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/01\/patriotism\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Patriotism&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":894,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions\/894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}