Norman Mailer lashes out at ‘self-serving US patriotism’
Norman Mailer has sounded what he hopes will be a “wake-up call for America“, warning that the wave of patriotism sweeping the United States as it prepares to go to war with Iraq could swiftly turn into fascism
Mailer, who supported the previous Bush administration during the 1991 Gulf war – reportedly because he felt the United States was failing and needed a war – tells Americans that “when you have a great country it’s your duty to be critical of it so it can become even greater…
“Culturally, emotionally America is growing more loutish, arrogant, and vain. I detest this totally promiscuous patriotism. Wave a little flag and become a good person? Ugly.
“If we have a depression or fall into desperate economic times, I don’t know what’s going to hold the country together…
“There’s just too much anger here, too much ruptured vanity, too much shock, too much identity crisis. And worst of all, too much patriotism. Patriotism in a country that’s failing has a logical tendency to turn fascistic.”