I’d be embarrassed to have such a ridiculous and ignorant statement attached to my name.....you didn’t read much Adam Smith in school did you?
You know, having read your book, I realize you are an intelligent guy with a lot of good insights, but I don't like to discuss politics (or much of anything else) with insults, so I will pass. Sorry we disagree.
..it looks to me like maybe Jim Noble has read more Adam Smith than you...
The love of our own country seems not to be derived from the love of mankind. The former sentiment is altogether independent of the latter, and seems sometimes even to dispose us to act inconsistently with it. France may contain, perhaps, near three times the number of inhabitants which Great Britain contains.
In the great society of mankind, therefore, the prosperity of France should appear to be an object of much greater importance than that of Great Britain. The British subject, however, who upon that account, should prefer upon all occasions the prosperity of the former to that of the latter country, would not be thought a good citizen of Great Britain.
We do not love our country merely as part of the great society of mankind: we love it for its own sake, and independently of any such consideration.
That wisdom which contrived the system of human affections, as well as that of every other part of nature, seems to have judged that the interest of the great society of mankind would be best promoted by directing the principle attention of each individual to that particular portion of it, which was most within the sphere both of his abilities and his understanding."
Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, pg 231