Poddy, patriot

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Mon Jul 3 20:42:36 PDT 2000


Doug Henwood wrote:


> By Norman Podhoretz.
>
> Admittedly, as far
> back as the 18th century, the great English literary critic Samuel
> Johnson famously dismissed patriotism as "the last refuge of a
> scoundrel." But this was an uncharacteristic remark coming from so
> fervent a Tory as Johnson.

Geez, Podhoretz is an illiterate gump -- he doesn't know, apparently, that Johnson made this remark *just because* he was a Tory. At the time in England "Patriot" was a term used to describe an opponent of the government. It had approximately the force that "radical" or even "anarchist" has now.

Carrol



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