And, again, this is a characteristic of patriotism. Patriotism is a will to be nationally significant. It is national pride. It is national ambition, a will to self-respect and the respect of others, a will to national standing, greatness, distinction, importance, power. The existence of this will to be significant is why nations are so sensitive on points of honor and prestige. Their national significance is lowered if they allow, let us say, a public insult to go unavenged. It is a reason why nations cannot back down in a war when it once gets started, and why they can all be for peace after the war, but not while it is being waged. National significance, as national significance now goes, will not permit them to do other than win the war. This is why states like to regard themselves as “powers,” for it is as a “power” that a nation finds itself significant in world politics. It is why countries fight for their “civilization.” The predominance of their civilization means the fulfillment of their desire for national significance. It is why the knowledge of the history and literature of one’s country is likely to produce patriotism; such knowledge creates both a conviction of the country’s significance and the desire to realize it further. The grounds upon which a country asserts its significance is an important matter. As long as military prowess and possession of much territory are esteemed to be things of great importance, the nations will strive to be significant by being distinguished for those things. If the ideals of mankind can be more largely turned to constructive activities, the nations will strive to be significant along those lines. There are patriots whose ideals are of the latter type. They seek the internal development of their country as a means of making it more worth while and hence more significant. The significance that they seek is not merely that which glories in the admiration and perhaps envy of the world; it is not a significance adjudged by a jury of mankind, but one that they themselves find in making their country approximate an ideal. Patriotism is the will to be nationally significant; another main characteristic of the will to individuality is what is working in important manifestations of patriotism. An individual, at least a finite individual, is one of a community. And its individuality, therefore, rests upon a “broad basis of likeness.”[154] The conscious individual, for instance, does not strive to make his individuality consist in absolute difference. He wants to be different only within certain limits. He does not want to be “outlandish.” He wants in certain broad ways to be like his fellows. He would, if it were called to his attention, agree that his individuality rested in great measure upon membership in his community.