I keep and display the cards I receive for several years running. In fact, that is the most I have to show for my namesake, which means beloved, since I went underground. I have not received any other sort of present for thirteen years. I have only myself to show my cards to. Well, there is an exception: only one friend has visited my sparsely furnished abode over the last three years. I served take-out salads on paper plates, on a single TV tray as I have no table. Now she prefers to have me over for dinner from time to time, and insists that I drink out of a glass.

Of course it is not the thing given but the thought that really counts.  I take care that the cheap cards that I send out are attractive and have the standard heartwarming and sometimes funny messages, and I make sure to sign them. Each holiday greeting I receive, including the unsigned family newsletters and advertisements, is special to me. Most peculiar of all is the nationalist greeting I received this year from a distinguished member of America’s professional elite.

A large ornament, a ball probably representing the world, completely covered in red, white and blue, to wit the stars and stripes of the American flag, appears on the front of the card. Below the ball, GREETINGS appears large in silver. Letters embossed in italic around the ball spell out Freedom, Security, Justice, Honor, Liberty, Happiness, Peace, Trust. Inside is this printed lecture, writ in red:

May the Spirit of the Holidays remind you of the strength and perseverance of our nation and its people.

Below that rubric is scrawled the signature, an illegible, flamboyant flourish covering the bottom half of the card. The back of the card warns that it is copyrighted by Williamhouse and made in the USA, a country that patriots believe is their one and only nation and people rather than a country of several nations comprising different peoples such as the wandering Nation of Israel, the Nation of Islam, the various Native American nations and so on.

Gee, I had sent my patriotic associate a silly Happy Hanukah card, costing me all of $1.95 plus tax, adorned with a reindeer named Sol, whose antlers formed a Menorah, and now I was rewarded with an image of the World Spirit, an image privately designed and manufactured in the USA. It appears that I had finally made a profit on my holiday card venture. But I felt insecure for some reason, unhappy, disturbed, dishonored, enslaved, distrustful, the subject of some sort of injustice perpetrated by scoundrels. And I was angered, not at all by the patriotic man who meant well, but by the attitude displayed on the mass-produced greeting card.

I believe my overreaction was due to my experience with authority and the violent means it employs to impose its finite, atomistic notion of peace and prosperity on the whole world. This “great nation of ours” is great because it has continually made war on others, and because its people believe that overcharging each other for everything will profit everyone. Fine, but I, for one, prefer to keep my participation in the war of all against all to a bare minimum. And it follows that I would not make a religion out of politics on purportedly holy days. Political religions and national gods, no matter how universal they might be conceived for the sake of absolute power in the name of some one-and-only political god, do not make my holiday holy. They do remind me of the barbarians who dragged their tribal idols through the village – all who did not salute were put to death – and of the neo-barbarian Fascist state described in Benito Mussolini’s fascist manifesto:

“The Fascist State, as a higher and more powerful expression of personality, is a force, but a spiritual one. It sums up all the manifestations of the moral and intellectual life of man. Its functions cannot therefore be limited to those of enforcing order and keeping the peace, as the liberal doctrine had it. It is no mere mechanical device for defining the sphere within which the individual may duly exercise his supposed rights. The Fascist State is an inwardly accepted standard and rule of conduct, a discipline of the whole person; it permeates the will no less than the intellect. It stands for a principle which becomes the central motive of man as a member of civilized society, sinking deep down into his personality; it dwells in the heart of the man of action and of the thinker, of the artist and of the man of science: soul of the soul Fascism, in short, is not only a law-giver and a founder of institutions, but an educator and a promoter of spiritual life. It aims at refashioning not only the forms of life but their content - man, his character, and his faith. To achieve this propose it enforces discipline and uses authority, entering into the soul and ruling with undisputed sway. Therefore it has chosen as its emblem the Lictor’s rods, the symbol of unity, strength, and justice.”

But come to think of it, I am as intolerant as the barbarians, inasmuch as my faith in infinite Nothing is intolerant of their faith in their favorite limited things, including their beloved nations, which need enemies to be nations at all. One loves one’s nation at the expense of other nations – is not patriotism hate-others-based-group-love? For Nothing to exist so that I might have faith in nonexistence, some things must negate it thus exist. Perhaps in negations of Negation I may find and positively assert myself as my kind of thing in marked contrast to other kinds. I might as well pay obeisance to something secular or in particular for a change, while still worshiping the universal in all particulars, say Being-in-itself, which is to say nondenominational Nothing. Why not worship the World Spirit as represented by the One Nation under God that is constantly making war for world peace, for liberty and justice for all, the United States of America? And who needs a tribal god when the World Spirit rules One Nation and is thus solely responsible for it? I noticed that God was not even mentioned in the nationalistic card I received.

Of course the USA is not the only nation in the world. Different nations must exist around the globe to fight for peace, and world peace can only be achieved when some great nation presides over the world. The permanent peace among the states of the United States of America indicates that global peace is quite possible under a United States of the World, provided that it has a monopoly on violence to exert against domestic criminals since there will no longer be foreign enemies. Until then each great nation of Ours may dream of world domination, especially on the great National Spirit Holiday, to be held on and around January 1. That is, until Global Independence Day is declared, and then the entire globe will celebrate at exactly the same time, District of Columbia Time, regardless of the relative times of day or night around the world.

For now, the first moment of the New Year occurs at different times in different places, thus the peoples of different nations may have their own New Year holiday. It follows that their holiday greeting cards may be ornamented with different flags – mind you that the shiny balls are not Christmas ornaments, but rather decorate the Tree of Life common to all, the one with one head, two arms and two legs. This life is common to all, for all come from one navel, so to speak, and are thus one nation despite their different national skins. Here we have effected a momentary reconciliation of an antinomy. The one and the many are one. The universal is made concrete in particulars. The World Spirit is the National Spirit. Mutual enemies come out of their trenches, lay down their weapons, embrace and kiss one other. Or at least they send them a card in the national holiday spirit!

I think I am becoming a frustrated fascist. I have designed my own card for next year. The front shall bear an attractive rendering of the fasces ax, and the following shall be tastefully inscribed inside:

GREETINGS!

May the Spirit of the Holidays remind you that a man is man only by virtue of the spiritual process to which he contributes as a member of the family, the social group, the nation, and in function of history to which all nations bring their contribution. A nation, as expressed in the State, is a living, ethical entity only in so far as it is progressive. Inactivity is death. Therefore the State is not only Authority which governs and confers legal form and spiritual value on individual wills, but it is also Power which makes its will felt and respected beyond its own frontiers, thus affording practical proof of the universal character of the decisions necessary to ensure its development. This implies organization and expansion, potential if not actual. Thus the State equates itself to the will of man, whose development cannot be checked by obstacles and which, by achieving self-expression, demonstrates its infinity.

BENITO MUSSOLINI