The phrase
amour-propre (since 'propre' means
clean) elides 'self-love' and 'clean-love'. What a striking portmanteau that is! What truths it contains!--not that self-love is somehow good or valuable, but that notions of cleanness are, at root,
prideful notions. The euphemism 'ethnic cleansing' has taken on wide cultural currency for a reason, after all ...
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