It was really time for me to be ashamed. Not so much ashamed of myself, even though like most of us I had made some questionable judgements about personal or social or political matters, often enough but not always out of sheer foolishness. No: ashamed for the country in which I was born and nurtured. And yet, so many countries in the recorded history of humanity have been responsible for so many lies and atrocities and stupid mistakes, as well as some good achievements. So I have no real need to trouble myself with this rather abstract shame. Even so, it is there. It was Samuel Johnson in 1775 who said: ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’ My much less memorable variant: ‘Pride is what you expect of a patriot, and is often unthinking: what commands respect is a patriot’s shame.’
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