demands complete loyalty and obedience. It is a claim that has been echoed and repeated many times down through the centuries, right into our own. Nebuchadnezzar was not the first or the last to link patriotism, religion, and culture for the political benefit of the state itself. In how many countries, ancient and modern, Western and non-Western, have we seen this combination? The state claims total allegiance and justifies it on grounds of necessity, for stability, for ethnic survival, for higher