METAECONOMIC POSTSCRIPT ON NATIONALISM

Metaeconomics using Dual Interest Theory  (DIT) is based in a serious and systematic attempt at integration across the realm of science & humanities (especially  ethics). So, integrating across the recent books addressing the matter of political systems especially as related to Nationalism is easily accomplished, as well as productive of new understanding. The integrating here is across the books by Hanson and Kopstein (2024), Hazony (2018, 2025), Levitsky and Way (2010), and especially Smith (2020).  All four books (less so Hazony, but it is implicit) point to how the move toward vertical power rule of men Authoritarianism is becoming a huge problem. Such political systems are returning (even though most places moved away from same by about 1648),  and is countering the horizontal power rule of law Democracy based systems that came into vogue especially in the 1700s, as represented in the 1787 US Constitution.  In too many cases, countries are repeating the mistakes of the past, as especially made clear in reading Smith (2020), who uses the German experience to help make clear what can go awry in any kind of Authoritarian system. So, here we go with a DIT based  Metaeconomic integration to make better sense of key ideas.

Authoritarian Nationalism is Always About “Make [Nation] Great Again” and “[Nation] First”

It is a trope.  It is always about promising moral purification, restored strength, and renewed dominance through obedience and exclusion. It is always about “us-the favored” vs “them-the outsider.”  It is about going back to some magical time when all was well for the “us,” which never existed. The related trope is “[Nation] First,” which is about isolating said Nation from the community of Nations, generally with the frame of superiority, dominance over same. It is a  Bully [Nation] frame of mind (like using Bully Tariffs rather than Empathy Tariffs). It is also assuredly about taking The Third Road to Serfdom.

Authoritarians Take Power Through the Total Disregard for Truth

And, how is it accomplished?  Well, the Authoritarian leader arrives on the scene which generally has economic malaise but also cultural turmoil, promising to fix everything, and generally operates with little to no regard for the truth.  It is all about achieving purpose, without empirical fact having any accord.  It also generally entails skilled, orchestrated application of the old political technology BLPT (Big Lie Political Technology), actually better described as the Total Disregard for the Truth Political Technology.  Outrageous claims are repeated and repeated and repeated (like 2020 Election Stolen) until way too many buy-in to the claim.  And, once the first few of such claims are accepted, the Authoritarian leader can then say anything for purpose, with the brainwashed going along.

Promise to Fix Everything Just to Win Support

A common feature of the move to Authoritarian Nationalism is also promising to provide and/or do what every possible constituency wants accomplished, again without regard for the truth.    So, when speaking to farmers, the agricultural subsidies will always be in the background to cover any damage to the industry from weather, export markets disappearing, or financial distress of any kind.  The religious are promised more influence, perhaps even going to restoration of an integrated church & state.  For the veterans, the medical care will always be in play.  For the elderly, social security and medicare will never be touched.   For the teachers and educators, education and science are said to be held in high regard, when in fact it is not.  Authoritarian regimes are generally anti-education  --- especially in the humanities, which authoritarians find threatening --- and, well,  brainwashing is far easier with the uneducated. Also, any kind of fact-finding organization from investigative journalists to university researchers are to be disparaged and neutralized.  University and government research is also greatly reduced in funding  as the leadership controls the information to serve the narrow interests, which also means reducing the competence of federal agencies, now run by loyalists. The list goes  on and on and on, with little regard for the truth of any of the claims, and no concern for the fact that doing everything for everyone is patently impossible.

Disparaging Science & Humanities

Authoritarian Nationalism systems tend  to be both anti-science and anti-humanities, as well as anti-arts, as illustrated here (with some help from ChatGPT-5):

Era / Regime	Anti-science	Anti-humanities (and arts)
Nazi Germany	“De-Jewified” physics (“German physics”), banned relativity; subordinated research to ideology.	Censored literature, burned books, purged universities.
Stalinist USSR	“Lysenkoism” replaced genetics with political biology.	State-controlled history and literature; socialist realism only.
Modern Authoritarian Nationalism	Climate denial, pandemic pseudoscience, attacks on “woke” academia, universities claimed to be anti-capitalism.	Defunding arts/humanities, banning books, rewriting history, claiming universities are anti-Christian, anti-American.

Now, it has always been the case that even moderate forms of right-wing political ideology have always demonstrated the anti-science and anti-humanities frame, even within Democracies.  The problem is, it really starts to show up in even slight tilts away from Democracy toward  what Levitsky and Way (2010) call Competitive Authoritarianism, like in Hungary at this time.

Authoritarian Nationalism systems often end up anti-science and anti-humanities, to include anti-arts, even though said domains are the foundation of serious and systematic inquiry. It seems paradoxical, because authoritarian systems need science (technology, medicine, weapons, surveillance) — yet they disparage real science just as they disparage the humanities. The key is: Such systems do not reject science as a tool; they reject science as a culture of open questioning and shared truth. So, there are psychological and political dimensions, which can be made sense with DIT.

The psychological reason is the fear of uncertainty in Authoritarian thinking.  Both science and the humanities are built on open inquiry, skepticism, and revision of belief when evidence or reasoning demands it. The arts, too, work to open the mind to new horizons. But authoritarian psychology craves certainty, control, and predictability.

The political reason is that science & humanities threaten the control of the narrative. Science and the humanities, along with the arts, generate independent truth systems outside the control of political authority. That independence is intolerable to any vertical regime, which wants monopoly over “what’s real,” "authoritarian common sense."

So, in Authoritarian Nationalism based systems: 

• Control science:  Demand “patriotic science,” suppress data (climate, pandemic, demographics) that challenge ideology.

• Control humanities (and the arts) :  Reframe history and literature (and the arts) to serve nationalist myths.

• Undermine trust in expertise: Brand scientists and scholars as “elites,” “enemies of the people,” or “globalists.”

  
  

The goal is not to eliminate inquiry but to domesticate it — to turn science into technocratic obedience and the humanities into cultural ornament, all controlled by the Authoritarian Nationalist state.

So, when  anti-science and anti-humanities rhetoric rise together, it signals a shift from horizontal rule of law and reason to vertical rule of men and myth.  The total disregard for truth in Authoritarian Nationalism cannot stand the empirical test coming out of serious and systematic inquiry using science and humanities. It must be suppressed.

Authoritarians Always Create the “Them” to be Isolated From and Controlled by the “Us”

And, the most devasting of all:  The Authoritarian leader works to create the “them” which must be demonized, set aside, excluded in every way. It is about the illegal immigrants, the outsiders defined by race and ethnicity, and especially by religion. It is also about anyone in political opposition framed as the enemy within, any political opposition being an extremist organization to be neutralized.  It is about defining the “us” which the Authoritarian leader will represent, promising (again without regard for the truth of what can and will be done) taking full care of the needs and wants of all the loyalists  within the “us.”  The recent release from the White House points to exactly said frame: Suppress all political opposition https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/countering-domestic-terrorism-and-organized-political-violence/  such as to ensure the “us” remains unquestioned, and fully in control over all dissent from the "them." It is an old trick, as documented in Smith (2020).   

The “us” vs “them” (the frame of old fashioned fascism as well as the modern,  more nuanced version of neofascism)  is often the key feature of both Competitive Authoritarian and  Authoritarian Nationalism, especially the Radical form of it formed in 1933-1945 Germany.  It led to the holocaust.   The “them” are blamed (with little to no concern for the truth content of the claim) for the problems of “us” which it is promised will be fixed once the “them” are neutralized, removed, and, as in 1930s Germany, subjected to genocide.  It also means the move to one political party, as any political opposition is part of the “them.” An Authoritarian system is a one-party system, a party of the “us.” Once elected, the Authoritarian does everything to ensure noone from the opposing party ever gains elected office again.

Authoritarian Systems are Inherently Dysfunctional

Dual Interest Theory (DIT) in Metaeconomics makes clear how such systems are inherently dysfunctional, economically inefficient (loyalists in charge, competence optional, modern competent government essential to economic  efficiency destroyed), and unethical --- corrupt --- to the core. It is patently impossible for such a system do anything other than to ensure The Third Road to Serfdom for not only the “them” but, ironically, for most if not all of the “us.”  

Reason? Well, both Competitive Authoritarian and Authoritarian Nationalism is focused on the self-interest (ego-based, often with hedonism and narcissism in play) of the Authoritarian leaders at the  top, with only a kind of dark empathy in play for the loyalists. Now, said loyalists might do reasonably well in said system as long as loyalty (competence optional) is in play: Wealthy conservatives in Germany helped install the leader of the Authoritarian Nationalist part of the early 1930s, the National Socialists (Nazi) because it was believed the wealthy would be served well, and, the leader could be kept in bounds: Not. 

The lack of empathy with the rest of the “us” --- and no empathy with the “them” --- ensures the system eventually collapses. And, it can really get out of hand before it collapses, like it did in 1933-1945 Germany, where the ANTIFA Military force to include the United States and Britain especially made it happen, totally destroying many large cities and killing over 300000 civilians in the bombing by the end of the war.  And, while the ANTIFA Allies were major drivers, it was already deteriorating from within. 

Killing off millions of formally productive contributors to the Germany economy was ensuring The Road to Serfdom. Again using the quote from Smith  (2020, p. 384)     “When we shoot the Jews dead, let the prisoners of war perish, subject a large part of the population of big cities to death by starvation, and in the coming years will also lose part of the rural population to hunger,” an economic adviser to the occupation of Ukraine noted, “then the question remains unanswered: who is supposed to actually produce economic value here?” Yes: Good question. Deporting between 10-30 million immigrants from the US starting in January 2025, which will cost $300-400B, plus lost economic production, well, who is supposed to produce economic value here?   Without immigrants, the US economy will go down The Third Road to Serfdom: Count on it.

Modern Day Germany is Fully Awake to the Danger

As Smith (2020) makes clear, modern-day Germans are now fully awake to the need to keep Democracy in play.  No form of Authoritarian Nationalism will be tolerated by Germans, ever again.  Americans need to wake-up to the dangers --- Wake Up America, WUPA --- of moving toward Authoritarian Nationalism even if hidden in the Hybrid/Competitive Authoritarian Nationalism form,  which is the current trend starting back in 2016, and now in full view after the 2024 Election.  And, like many Germans said after the war was lost to the allies, “we did not know.”  Well, Americans have no excuse for not knowing: Just read German history, look around, be aware. The filing of 450+ lawsuits since January  2025 to slow and hopefully stop the destruction of the US Constitution, well, something not normal is going on.  Authoritarian Nationalism is on the way. So, WUPA (Wake Up America), before it is too late.

A Virtuous Nationalism is Possible if Democracy is Also Maintained

Back to the original question:  Is some form of a Nation state, one that embeds the virtues of a Nationalism, as Hazony (2018, 2025) claims is possible?  Well, yes: It starts with something akin to the Constitutional Democracy formed by the 1787 US Constitution, and works to build an empathy-based widely shared other interest that works for everyone within the geographical boundaries of the Nation (even if one is living temporarily somewhere else).  It is about building a shared other-interest in a mutual loyalty to the Nation.  It is about “We” the people, which blurs any line between “Us” and “Them”, making it a joint, nonseparable, interdependent “Us & Them,” or, simply a “We.”  As DIT makes clear, it is then about striking balance in Me & We, with the latter holding that widely shared other interest. Empathy-with going every  direction to include “we-the people” --- all the people --- could bring a virtuous  Nationalism. 

The We holds the common ground evolved among the many clans, tribes, immigrants and born citizens about what it means to be said Nation. It involves a common language, perhaps even some common precepts coming from different religions, a shared ethic that all can go along with. It is about a horizontal rule of law system representing that ethic, with everyone treated the same under that legal system. It is about that widely shared other-interest tempering and giving context to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness of each and every “Me.”  It is about a “Me needs a We to Be, but without a Me there is no We.”   In the technical terms of DIT, said Nation runs on the primal ego-based self-interest given context by, and tempered by (tempering the excesses, as in Lynne 2020), the widely shared empathy-based other-interest.  Dark empathy goes away, as empathy-with is spread in every direction to include everyone.

Empathy is Key as in Empathy-Based Ethics

Empathy is key, as it gives the ethic, the virtue of the Nation, as in the [Nation] Ethic, or in the Hazony (2018, 2025) notion of The Virtue of Nationalism.  Said Ethic bounds and strikes a balance in the Incentive of each Me to make a way in the Nation, as in Incentive & Ethic.  Like Adam Smith framed it in the 1700s --- the Smith ideas fresher than the latest news --- the task of the Nation is to strike balance in Wealth & Sentiment, the latter holding the moral and ethical content that forms the Nation. As made clear through an integration of the ideas in Adam Smith’s two books, An Inquiry into the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of  Nations (Smith 1776/1789), which was Incentive driven & The (Theory of) Moral Sentiments (Smith 1759/1790), the virtue --- said integration gave the form and wealth to the Nation.  Authoritarian Nationalism (as well as hybrid systems, like Competitive Authoritarianism fails dramatically in both domains.  Democracy makes it work.

Dual Interest Theory (DIT) in Metaeconomics Makes Clear that Democracy is Essential to Avoiding Serfdom

The German Economy was destroyed by the Authoritarian Radical Nationalism:  Serfdom would have been the outcome had it not been for the Allies helping rebuild that economy.  And, how are the other Authoritarian Nationalism systems doing? Well, all are on the road to serfdom as the best descriptor:  Weak economies, all.   To compare, consider the vibrant, envy of the world US economy before it went toward Authoritarian Nationalism, as represented in the pre-2024 Election era.  America: GDP(National Income)/capital/day was $224 in 2024. The Hybrid/Competitive Authoritarian Nationalism and the Authoritarian Nationalism economies, in that  2024? Well, Russia:  $41.  Hungary: $64, and, a few others,  Argentina:  $38. Turkey: $42.  Brazil: $28. China:  $36.  And, the oligarchs in each take most of it. 

Any form of Authoritarian Nationalism never has, does not, and never will do as well as a Democracy based horizontal power rule of system like the US Economy --- and places like Norway do even better: $238 in 2024, as the distribution of income is more nearly optimal (as in Optimal Inequality … see   https://www.metaeconomics.info/post/adam-smith-on-income-and-wealth-inequality   and https://www.metaeconomics.info/post/avoiding-extreme-inequality   ).  It is only such systems that have adequate Incentive for innovation, and the liberty, freedom, dignity and opportunity accorded ordinary people to build a widget and have a go in the Market  (see  https://www.metaeconomics.info/post/cargo-cult-economics-to-metaeconomics ) , which is also checked in the Community of shared other-interest . 

Also, said Democracy based Governments have an Ethic in play, in the rule of law system, as in the American Ethic now under assault, especially since January 20, 2025, when the unethical became the norm. And, an often overlooked fact, said systems also have competent, professional civil service workers and bureaucrats that help ensure the Ethic (e.g., food, drug, and environmental regulations and law tempering the extremes of Market Fundamentalism) is in place to frame the Incentive. The first thing an Authoritarian Nationalism does is get rid of modern government (again see Hanson and Kopstein 2024, and the Assault on Modern Government    https://www.metaeconomics.info/post/the-assault-on-the-deep-state    ), as was the charge of DOGE, in effect getting rid of the empathy-based Ethic on which modern government runs and brings to the table. 

Modern, science-based, competent government cannot be in play because loyalists (competence optional) must be in charge to keep the Authoritarian in charge.  Authoritarian Nationalism is unethical to the core.   It also tends to be corrupt.  Overall, both the Incentive and the Ethic are in short supply. So, why are people moving toward Authoritarian Nationalism?    Why move from $224 à $28-61, as represented in the move toward Serfdom?  Recent economic data for the US shows the GDP has already dropped in just the first 9-months of 2025, and, it is going down every day.

As DIT makes clear, the real issue is whether said “virtuous”  Nation and National State can be a horizontal power rule of law system like has evolved under the US Constitution, or must it be a vertical power rule of men Authoritarian Nationalism which is inherently “unvirtuous” (unethical) and economically unproductive.  Hazony (2018, 2025) never says, but implies a vertical power system run by loyalists in a hierarchy could still be virtuous: it is doubtfu, in that it devolves to an "us" vs "them" system.  It is also doubtful such a system can ever have a strong, modern economy, as modern government with a competent civil service cannot run in such a system. Lots of danger lurking here in the background of that claim. 

As DIT makes clear, a truly workable mid-ground would point to a common set of shared loyalties for the country, to which anyone living in the country (and/or immigrating into that country) needs to join in mutual loyalty with same.  Language, traditions, the ethic need to be widely shared. The problem with the Hazony (2018, 2025) mid-ground seems to be that a kind of dark mutual loyalty, a dark empathy within the “us” of the people at the top could form.  A mid-ground, in DIT terms, must retain a horizontal power rule of law system (and a competent,  modern government with well-staffed federal agencies), not an Authoritarian (vertical power rule of men) Nationalism as happened in extreme form in 1930s Germany.  As noted, said systems are just not doing well in in modern forms, either.

Main DIT Insight on the Spectrum of Political Economic Systems

In a nutshell, with some help from ChatGPT-5 …  the main DIT Insight:

• Authoritarian vertical power rule of men systems arise when ego-interest overwhelms empathy, producing vertical domination.

• Constitutional horizontal power rule of law (rule of the ordinary people) democracies survive by institutionalizing empathy-with  shared (with the other) interest, the other considerations, sometimes meaning legal  constraints—embedding the “reasonable other” into law and process.

• The balance point is fragile: without cultural reinforcement of empathy, and attention to the rule of law horizontality can erode into vertical authoritarian drift.

Any move to Nationalism must be sensitized to the need to ward off the vertical authoritarian drift.

On the Matter of the US Democracy Based Republic Holding Ground

Is the US Democracy holding ground? Is the Republic form of Democracy put in place by the Founders of the US going to survive, given the obvious push toward at minimum a Competitive Authoritarian Nationalism and even worse in the form of an Authoritarian Nationalism starting in 2016, and now in full force after the 2024 Election, as in Make America Great Again, and America First?  Well, for starters, on the downside, modern government is under assault, as federal agencies are stripped of competent scientists and workers essential to a modern economy (see  https://www.metaeconomics.info/post/searching-for-the-scientific-foundation-under-project-2025 ).  The assault on the Constitution, too, is unprecedented as indicated by over 450 lawsuits filed to slow down the attempt to operate outside the law, outside the frame of the Constitution.

Even some Conservatives who seemingly have been mostly all in on supporting the drastic changes taking the US toward an Authoritarian Nationalism are starting to wonder. Said concern is represented in the recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by  Noonan (2025): 

Are we maintaining our republic? Is our equilibrium holding? The last nine months a lot of lines seem to have been crossed—in the use of the military, in redirecting the Justice Department to target the president’s enemies, real and perceived. There are many areas in which you’ve come to think: Isn’t the executive assuming powers of the Congress here? Why is Congress allowing this? The executive branch takes on authority to bend its foes, defeat them. You ask: Is all this constitutional? The president “jokes” that he may not accept the Constitution’s two-term presidential limit. Are you laughing?

The 250th anniversary of July 4, 1776, comes up next year, and many of us are rereading the old documents. The past week I’ve talked to two historians, one rightish, one leftish, and both conversations turned toward Thomas Jefferson’s stinging bill of particulars against King George III in the Declaration of Independence.

They resonate in unexpected ways: “For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.” “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.” “He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our Legislatures.” “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.” “Obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither.”

The Founders didn’t want any of that. It’s why they created a republic.

Yes, indeed. So, will the Constitutional Democracy based Republic stand the current assault? Or, are we headed down The Third Road to Serfdom assured by a move toward  Authoritarian Nationalism? 

Where Key Countries Sit on the Political System Spectrum

The following is with some help from ChatGPT-5.  The number in parenthesis represents the National Income per capita per day, as in Gross Domestic Product (GDP)/capita/day. Data are for 2024, estimates provided by the World Bank.  Clearly the economies become less viable as one moves away from the horizonal rule of law democracies. Also, keep in mind that to stay away from serfdom --- as McCloskey (2006, 2010, 2016, 2022; Review in Lynne 2025) makes clear --- requires a system that gives liberty and freedom, dignity and opportunity to the ordinary people. Hierarchy in any form, such as in Competitive Authoritarian Nationalism and Authoritarian Nationalism, as well as the old styled Patrimonial System, does not work. Variants on the Horizontal Rule of Law Constitutional Democracy are the only ones that work: Any other system ensures the Road to Serfdom, as demonstrated in the GDP/capita/day numbers in parenthesis.

• Horizontal constitutional (stable or resilient democracy horizontal rule of law): Norway ($238), New Zealand ($134), Iceland ($227), Germany ($153), Canada ($149)  (rated “full” or “free,” with variations). Economist Intelligence Unit+1.  Britain (UK $144) still mainly here, although the Brexit move in England is an indicator of tilting.  United States ($224) has 249-years of experience in this category, and while historically stable and resilient, it is clearly now tilting away from it.

• Hybrid / competitive-authoritarian (tilting vertical) with a nationalism frame, tending to vertical power rule of men, with law for "us" and law for "them"): Hungary (canon case of “illiberal democracy”/competitive authoritarianism, $64); India (classified by V-Dem as electoral autocracy); Turkey (long-running erosion, $42). Journal of Democracy+2Taylor & Francis Online+2;  Brazil  ($28) and Argentina ($38), and evermore Israel ($148, in 2024, but likely lower now because of the tilt), also fit here. United States is moving  (GDP declining since 2024) to this category:  Back when it was still a full, stable and resilient constitutional democracy in 2024, the GDP/capita/day was $224, the wealthiest and most stable economy of any  Nation in the world. 

• Vertical patrimonial-authoritarian (consolidated, clear use of vertical power rule of men, with dual law systems, "us-law" and "them-law") nationalism: Russia ($41), China ($36), Afghanistan (not only authoritarian, but a theocracy, $1),  Iran (also an authoritarian theocracy with nationalistic framing, $13),  El Salvador ($15) has registered one of the largest recent declines. Freedom House

The  US is tilting away from the Constitutional Democracy that has made it the wealthiest and most resilient country on this Spaceship Earth. It is moving toward the Competitive Authoritarian system with Nationalism framing like in Hungary.  Christian Nationalism --- wanting church to have undue influence on state --- is part of it, but also Unitary Executive Power which is all in for a vertical power rule of men Authoritarianism.  Nationalism is also in view, as the “us-current citizens” and “them” of immigrants, especially if not Christians, is ever more in play.  Also, all political opposition are demonized, putting same in the “them” category. 

United States is Heading Down The Third Road to Serfdom

Overall, it seems the US is already on the The Third Road to Serfdom, with early vestiges of a Hybrid/Competitive Authoritarian Nationalism in play. GDP is dropping, which is as an early indicator.  Can it still be stopped, especially keeping it from moving to the Authoritarian Nationalism of places like Russia and China?  And, on the matter of The Third Road to Serfdom, why would the US even consider moving from the largest most wealthy economy at $224 toward even $64 in the Competitive Authoritarian Nationalism of Hungary, or, even worse toward $1-41 in the Authoritarian Nationalism systems like Russia and China? And, it is made even worse by "Christian" (which it is not, but it is a Religious Fundamentalism) Nationalism which reintegrates church and state "Christian" Nationalism is represented with all manner of misogyny, homophobia, and other anti-progress, anti-science frames like in Afghanistan and Iran (not Christian, but Religious Fundamentalism of other flavors in full view) at $1-13? 

The Third Road to Serfdom ensures declining economic viability (again, sorry to repeat it, but, the GDP is already declining in the US since January 2025), certainly a loss in Spaceship Earth wide economic dominance that was still in play in the constitutional democracy still functioning in 2024. It actually started dropping after 2023 (like 3-4% drop to 2024), as it started to look like the 2024 Election would favor Competitive Authoritarianism.

Point is:  Market & Constitutional (and Other Versions) Democracy works, as demonstrated in the US and other western Democracies, all put in place by around 1780 (again, see the review by Lynne 2025 of the McCloskey (2006, 2010, 2016) trilogy on what drove the Great Enrichment from 1780 onwards: Western Democracies left serfdom behind, as said Democracies gave horizontal power to ordinary people, not vertical power for Autocracy  & Theocracy (i.e., also separated chuch & state, essential to move away from serfdom) https://www.metaeconomics.info/post/cargo-cult-economics-to-metaeconomics    ) --- said horizontal power getting rid of the hierarchy is what drove the Great Enrichment, like $3 to $224 in the US.  And, what does not work is Market & Competitive Authoritarian  Nationalism, or Market & Authoritarian Nationalism. Bottom line: Nationalism in the sense of pride with others in mutual loyalty to a Nation can only be a good thing if combined with something akin to a Constitutional (Empathy-based, widely spread) Democracy.

Again, WUPA (Wake Up America). Be aware. Don’t let it happen.  The Serfs did not have much fun, not even in the Medieval Festivals.

References

Hanson, Stephen E. and Kopstein, Jeffrey S. The Assault on the State:  How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers Our Future. Hoboken, NJ: Polity Press, 2024.

Hazony, Yoram. The Virtue of Nationalism. New York: Basic Books, 2018 (and Second Edition, Basic Liberty, 2025).

Levitsky, Steven and Way, Lucan A. Competitive Authoritarianism:  Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Lynne, Gary D.  Metaeconomics:  Tempering Excessive Greed.  New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2020   https://www.metaeconomics.info/post/just-in-time-for-xmas-presents

Lynne, Gary D. “Cargo-Cult Economics to Metaeconomics:  Toward a Humanomics with a Theory.”  Review of Behavioral Economics 12, 3 (May 2025):  257-289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/105.00000212    See now publishers - Cargo-Cult Economics to Metaeconomics: Toward a Humanomics with a Theory     

McCloskey, Deirdre N. 2006. The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for An Age of Commerce. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

McCloskey, Deidre Nansen. 2010. Bourgeois Dignity:  Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

McCloskey, Deidre Nansen. 2016. Bourgeois Equality:   How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

McCloskey, Deidre Nansen and Art Carden. 2020. Leave Me Alone and I'll Make You Rich:  How the Bourgeois Deal Enriched the World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Noonan, Peggy.   A Republic, but Can We Keep It? Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2025.   https://www.wsj.com/opinion/a-republic-but-can-we-keep-it-e2838a12?mod=author_content_page_1_pos_1 

Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Cannan, E. (Editor). New York: Random House, 1776/1789 (digital access at www.feedbooks.com).

Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Macfie Rafael,  D.D. and A.L. Indianapolis, Indiana: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1759/1790 (digital access at digireads.com).

Smith, Helmut Walser. Germany: A Nation in Its Time, Before, During, and After Nationalism, 1500-2000. New York: Liveright Publishing, 2020.