Subject:
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Re: One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 4 Jul 2002 21:34:55 GMT
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Viewed:
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3811 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal writes:
> I have a couple of questions for you-- do you, in general, have a problem with
> patriotism? Do you ever feel a little uncomfortable calling America "great"
> (not the greatest, just "great")? Just wondering.
Only because I am finishing my breakfast and only because it is the day it is...
I do have a problem with patriotism. It is the same problem I have with
most "religious" people and their seemingly mad fervor for whatever thing
they happen to believe. To follow something blindly -- uneducated and
intentionally ignorant -- is really to favor a kind of tyranny. That
tyranny is the tyranny of the people that lead you, and the tyranny of what
they tell you to believe. No flag waving will ever replace real knowledge
of what our political system is supposed to be about, or real critical
knowledge of the world around you. True patriotism reveals itself in the
unique actions and wisdom of individuals, and not through symbolic pledges
and rituals performed in the presence of others engaged in the same groupthink.
True patriotism is informed. True patriotism is vigilant against tyranny.
True patriotism condemns the tyranny of pure democracy and favors the
republican form of government AND the protection of individual rights. True
patriotism strives for the betterment of the republic and is not satisfied
with the empty rhetoric of politicians or the maintenance of the status quo.
True patriotism expresses itself through the heart and mind -- the quiet
voice of political truth.
Every time I respond to stupid things about the U.S. or about our system of
government I am defending the republic and the ideals of our form of
government. Even when I defend these ideas from "insiders" I am defending
the republic -- and indeed, it may be even more important to defend the
republic from internal corrupting influences than to worry about imagined
threats from without.
I don't wave the flag of the republic because it is not important to do so.
What is important is to defend with all my being everything that the
republic stands for. The flag cannot defend the republic, it is a mere
symbol -- an inanimate thing. I defend the republic with my mind, my heart,
and sometimes I have defended it with my body. So no, I do not wave the flag
or make much of my patriotism to others because I would rather it actually
meant something more than shaking a symbolic piece of cloth with a pretty
pattern on it -- I save my energies for the things that matter.
Some people are content to be patriotic once a year -- today. They shout in
the streets. They wave the flag. They blow up things. They advertise to
others their pretended patriotism. They have no idea what they are doing.
Patriotism cannot be taught or learned by rote. One must find it for
oneself -- with the same difficulty as when one mines for gold. One drop of
political truth will cost you ten drops of blood.
I am patriotic every day in all the ways that matter, and I remain silent on
the one day when my silence cannot matter to the din of fireworks in the
streets. I know which kind of patriotism matters the most. True patriotism
is not the fury of discordant noises in the streets, it is the carefully
reasoned political loyalty to ideas learned with the heart and mind.
It was my habit for some years to read The Declaration of Independence and
the U.S. Constitution every 4th of July. Better you should do that today,
John, than to worry about what I think about patriotism.
BTW, that mote you have been staring at in my eye reads "pathemata mathemata."
-- Hop-Frog
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