Patriotism is your conviction
that this country is superior to all others
because you were born in it.
— George Bernard Shaw
Such is Hegel's doctrine of the State — a doctrine, which, if accepted, justifies every internal tyranny and every external aggression that can possibly be imagined. The strength of his bias appears in the fact that his theory is largely inconsistent with his own metaphysic, and that the inconsistencies are such as tend to the justification of cruelty and international brigandage. A man may be pardoned if logic compels him regretfully to reach conclusions he deplores, but not for departing from logic in order to be free to advocate crimes.