Leonid Nikitinsky – about patriotic discourse

Novaya Gazeta columnist Leonid Nikitinsky writes :

“Every discourse <...> is built according to its own rules. So, one can and should also talk about patriotism, it can be different - the compilers of the anthology will have to remember Chaadaev and Herzen. But patriotic discourse, on the contrary, is irrational: as in any conversation about love, it is even blasphemous to bring rational arguments in it.

Therefore, when Ivan Ilyin, beloved by patriots (and quoted by the president), argues that the Russian person as such has a certain moral sense, but does not bother himself with a rational substantiation of this thesis, this is not “Russian philosophy”, this is not philosophy at all, but fiction .

Red-hot (and always very evaluative) patriotism burns out every thought, leaving only the “front,” distilled aggression.”