by Awdhesh S | Jul 6, 2020 | What is patriotism?
“We take patriotism to mean love of nation and the loyalty that follows. My country right or wrong. Even as an abstract idea, it is hard to see how thinking people justify blind loyalty. And considered historically, patriotism is plainly dangerous, helping to unleash military rampages in the name of nation and obliterating the essential democratic capacity to assess concrete and particular interests.
The ubiquitous loyalty to nation-state is puzzling. How is it that people become passionately devoted to the abstraction of the state and its symbols? Propaganda could not be the human condition, such as the attachments most feel for kin and community. And perhaps nationalistic propaganda acquires the force it does because it draws on these axiomatic attachments.
Still, there is a difference. However parochial the ties that bind people to clan or place, these ties have something to do with the concrete experience of people, so that threats to clan or place can sometimes be assessed by direct experience. Not so with flag and nation. When state leaders appeal to patriotism, they mobilize citizens by invoking foreign threats that cannot be assessed by ordinary people, except sometimes when it is too late, as in the aftermath of war. In the process, not only are people made to sacrifice lives and resources to the contests of state-makers but the emotions generated overwhelm popular capacities for a reasoned and conflictual domestic politics. Never has that been more obvious.”
by James H | Jul 6, 2020 | What is patriotism?
“Nietzsche wrote that words with a history cannot be defined. Their meanings are in their stories, their biographies. That is surely the case with “patriotism.” Patriotism is as patriots have done. And in relatively recent times–say, since the American and French revolutions–those who have called themselves patriots or who have called others to the banner of patriotism have largely fallen into two camps.
The first company, whose signature is on so many of the bloodiest pages of the modern age, has its spiritual roots in the radical ideologies of the French Revolution. They announced the advent of a new god on earth and a new prophet/commander whose voice was the voice of that god. The new god, of course, was la patrie, the nation, and the new commander was the state.
Abbé Sieyès named the new god: “The nation exists before all. It is the origin of everything. It is the law itself.” By 1792, in a petition addressed to the National Assembly, the ferociously jealous claims of the of the new god were made chillingly clear: “The image of the patrie is the sole divinity which it is permitted to worship.”
Those claims have echoed in a thousand variations from that day to this. It is the worship of national power, of national greatness, nearly always expressed as power over other peoples and qualities, and as power that acknowledges no limits on its own assertion. This voice has been as clamorous and continuous in our own country as in many others. The line from Col. Alexander Hamilton to Lieut. Col. Oliver North is strong and pure.
The other company of patriots does not march to military time. It prefers the gentle strains of “America the Beautiful” to the strident cadences of “Hail to the Chief” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” This patriotism is rooted in the love of one’s own land and people, love too of the best ideals of one’s own culture and tradition. This company of patriots finds no glory in puffing their country up by pulling others’ down. This patriotism is profoundly municipal, even domestic. Its pleasures are quiet, its services steady and unpretentious.
This patriotism too has deep roots and long continuity in our history. Its voice is often temporarily shouted down by the battle cries of the first company, but it has never been stilled. Jefferson spoke for it, as did Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.
We should not be surprised if this voice is often heard lamenting or rebuking the country’s failures to live up to its own best ideals, which have always been the ideals of the fullest possible freedom and the most nearly equal justice for all. Its specifically political ideal found its finest expression in Lincoln’s “government of, by and for the people,” and the American domestic patriot is often heard calling fellow citizens and their officials to this standard. That call is distinctly a citizenly call, and never more so than when, as Father Mapple’s wonderful sermon in Moby-Dick has it, the citizen stands firm “against the proud gods and commodores of this earth” and calls every violation of the covenant to account “though he pluck it out from under the robes of Senators and Judges.”
by Forrest T | Jul 6, 2020 | What is patriotism?
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. Patriotism is the feeling of love and respect for your country, its history and traditions. Patriotism is a natural and probably the most important factor of the country’s success, because if people are the patriots, they work hard for the development of their country, protection of its historical heritage and improvement of the love towards the culture of the nation. The people who do not love their native country and have no idea about its traditions and history are not able to be called the people of this country, they are the simple citizens, who just live in its territory.
Patriotism is the major factor which makes people create human history, work hard, fight and die for their country. Without this factor there would be no wars, dignity and courage. When the aggressor tries to invade the country, it can simply capitulate, but it does not because there are people who want to see their country independent, flourishing and rich. No one enjoys when the stranger comes into his house and starts to set his own rules. The same thing is the country. If the invader starts to dictate with will, people start to protect their homes and the whole country with the purpose to maintain its identity and uniqueness.
Patriotism is the respect of the native history. It is natural and essential to be aware about the most important facts of the history of your country, because we learn many new and fascinating facts about the average people, their lifestyle, the failure and success and we start to realize how much does it cost to make the country prosperous, stable and convenient for life. Patriotism is not the love towards the territory of the country, it is the love towards the traditions and people who live on this territory, so it is important to have patriotic feeling in order to show the respect towards the ones who have contributed into the development of the country and its current peaceful condition.
It is a positive thing that patriotism is propagated since childhood, because children are the future of every country and if they love their country, they will strive to improve it further. Patriotism is not the humiliation of other countries and ethnicities; it is a natural love and respect towards the native country and this attitude should exist in everyone if he wants his country to be prosperous and esteemed.
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
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