Time & Perspective Quote by Nataša Pirc Musar

Patriotism here is framed less as a feeling than as a custodial duty. Pirc Musar’s “must” lands three times like a gavel, turning love into an obligation with terms and conditions. That’s deliberate: in a Europe where “love of country” can easily slide into grievance politics, she reroutes the emotion toward stewardship. The first clause, “because it is ours”, nods to belonging and solidarity, but it’s also a rhetorical risk: possessive language can sound exclusionary. She counterbalances it immediately by widening the timeline. The nation is “ours”, yet it’s also on loan.

The pivot to “future generations” is the quote’s moral engine. It swaps the usual patriotic currency - pride, memory, sacrifice - for intergenerational accountability. In that move, she borrows the logic of climate politics and good governance: you don’t adore something by praising it; you love it by maintaining it. “Excellent condition” is strikingly practical, almost bureaucratic, which is the point. This is not romance. It’s upkeep: institutions that aren’t hollowed out, public trust that isn’t casually spent, a social fabric not torn for short-term wins.

As a sitting president, Pirc Musar is also protecting the idea of patriotism from the people who weaponize it. The subtext reads: real loyalty is measured by what you leave behind - courts that function, media that’s free, minorities who aren’t treated as disposable. National love becomes a performance of restraint and responsibility, not domination. That’s a modern head-of-state move: make the flag mean the future, not just the past.