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Some Thoughts on Patriotism
William Blum
Counterpunch
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Most important thought: I’m sick and tired of this thing called “patriotism”.
The Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor were being patriotic. The German people who supported Hitler and his conquests were being patriotic, fighting for the Fatherland. All the Latin American military dictators who overthrew democratically-elected governments and routinely tortured people were being patriotic – saving their beloved country from “communism”.
General Augusto Pinochet of Chile: “I would like to be remembered as a man who served his country.”[1]
P.W. Botha, former president of apartheid South Africa: “I am not going to repent. I am not going to ask for favours. What I did, I did for my country.”[2]
Pol Pot, mass murderer of Cambodia: “I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country.”[3]
Tony Blair, former British prime minister, defending his role in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis: “I did what I thought was right for our country.”[4]
I won’t bore you with what George W. has said.
(Article continues below)
At the end of World War II, the United States gave moral lectures to their German prisoners and to the German people on the inadmissibility of pleading that their participation in the holocaust was in obedience to their legitimate government. To prove to them how legally inadmissable this defense was, the World War II allies hanged the leading examples of such patriotic loyalty.
I was once asked after a talk: “Do you love America?” I answered: “No”. After pausing for a few seconds to let that sink in amidst several nervous giggles in the audience, I continued with: “I don’t love any country. I’m a citizen of the world. I love certain principles, like human rights, civil liberties, democracy, an economy which puts people before profits.”
I don’t make much of a distinction between patriotism and nationalism. Some writers equate patriotism with allegiance to one’s country and government, while defining nationalism as sentiments of ethno-national superiority. However defined, in practice the psychological and behavioral manifestations of nationalism and patriotism — and the impact of such sentiments on actual policies — are not easily distinguishable.
Howard Zinn has called nationalism “a set of beliefs taught to each generation in which the Motherland or the Fatherland is an object of veneration and becomes a burning cause for which one becomes willing to kill the children of other Motherlands or Fatherlands.”[5] … “Patriotism is used to create the illusion of a common interest that everybody in the country has.”[6]
Strong feelings of patriotism lie near the surface in the great majority of Americans. They’re buried deeper in the more “liberal” and “sophisticated”, but are almost always reachable, and ignitable.
Alexis de Tocqueville, the mid-19th century French historian, commented about his long stay in the United States: “It is impossible to conceive a more troublesome or more garrulous patriotism; it wearies even those who are disposed to respect it.”[7]
George Bush Sr., pardoning former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in connection with the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal: “First, the common denominator of their motivation — whether their actions were right or wrong — was patriotism.”[8]
What a primitive underbelly there is to this rational society. The US is the most patriotic, as well as the most religious, country of the so-called developed world. The entire American patriotism thing may be best understood as the biggest case of mass hysteria in history, whereby the crowd adores its own power as troopers of the world’s only superpower, a substitute for the lack of power in the rest of their lives. Patriotism, like religion, meets people’s need for something greater to which their individual lives can be anchored.
So this July 4, my dear fellow Americans, some of you will raise your fists and yell: “U! S! A! U! S! A!”. And you’ll parade with your flags and your images of the Statue of Liberty. But do you know that the sculptor copied his mother’s face for the statue, a domineering and intolerant woman who had forbidden another child to marry a Jew?
“Patriotism,” Dr. Samuel Johnson famously said, “is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Ambrose Bierce begged to differ — It is, he said, the first.
“Patriotism is the conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.” George Bernard Shaw
“Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. … The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” George Orwell[9]
“Pledges of allegiance are marks of totalitarian states, not democracies,” says David Kertzer, a Brown University anthropologist who specializes in political rituals. “I can’t think of a single democracy except the United States that has a pledge of allegiance.”[10] Or, he might have added, that insists that its politicians display their patriotism by wearing a flag pin. Hitler criticized German Jews and Communists for their internationalism and lack of national patriotism. Along with Mussolini in Italy, the Führer demanded that “true patriots” publicly vow and display their allegiance to their respective fatherlands. Postwar democratic governments of the two countries made a conscious effort to minimize such shows of national pride.
(Oddly enough, the American Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy, a founding member, in 1889, of the Society of Christian Socialists, a group of Protestant ministers who asserted that “the teachings of Jesus Christ lead directly to some form or forms of socialism.”)
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, we could read that there’s “now a high degree of patriotism in the Soviet Union because Moscow acted with impunity in Afghanistan and thus underscored who the real power in that part of the world is.”[11]
“Throughout the nineteenth century, and particularly throughout its latter half, there had been a great working up of this nationalism in the world. … Nationalism was taught in schools, emphasized by newspapers, preached and mocked and sung into men. It became a monstrous cant which darkened all human affairs. Men were brought to feel that they were as improper without a nationality as without their clothes in a crowded assembly. Oriental peoples, who had never heard of nationality before, took to it as they took to the cigarettes and bowler hats of the West.” H.G. Wells, English writer[12]
“The very existence of the state demands that there be some privileged class vitally interested in maintaining that existence. And it is precisely the group interests of that class that are called patriotism.” Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist[13]
“To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography.” George Santayana, American educator and philosopher.
William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue State: a guide to the World’s Only Super Power. and West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir.
He can be reached at: BBlum6@aol.com
NOTES
[1] Sunday Telegraph (London), July 18, 1999
[2] The Independent (London), November 22, 1995
[3] Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong), October 30, 1997, article by Nate Thayer, pages 15 and 20
[4] Washington Post, May 11, 2007, p.14
[5] “Passionate Declarations” (2003), p.40
[6] ZNet Magazine, May 2006, interview by David Barsamian
[7] “Democracy in America” (1840), chapter 16
[8] New York Times, December 25, 1992
[9] “Notes on Nationalism”, p.83, 84, in “Such, Such Were the Joys” (1945)
[10] Alan Colmes, “Red, White and Liberal” (2003), p.30
[11] San Francisco Examiner, January 20, 1980, quoting a “top Soviet diplomat”
[12] “The Outline of History” (1920), vol. II, chapter XXXVII, p.782
[13] “Letters on Patriotism”, 1869
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33 Responses to “Some Thoughts on Patriotism”
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July 6th, 2008 at 7:55 am
What was talked of in the article is not patriotism but rather nationalism. The reason we don’t use the proper word is because of the warping of definitions as described in “1984.”
July 6th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Wally, very good point.
Patriotism is very important. If we ever get back our government it will be due to the efforts of Patriots.
This government would love to destroy true Patriots and Patriotism.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:25 am
I renounced patriotism and nationalism when I was thirteen years old. Patriotism and nationalism are the worship of the State. The National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance are worship of the State. I have no nationality; I am a human being, period. The U.S. troops are butt-lickers of corporate fascism.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Sounds like more of the same old reasoning to give up our soverignty in the name of globalism. We should never be ashamed of our country, but ashamed of the evils done in her name. Those deeds were perptrated by individuals, not the nation as a whole. The same applies to killing and fighting wars in the name of god. Hate not our lord but but the individuals killing in his name. Evil is as evil does.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:45 am
I’m not ashamed of the USA because I’m not an American. No, I despise the USA. By the way, joe, when are you ‘real’ patriotic Americans going to rise up in Revolution and get rid of the fascists in this shitty country?
July 6th, 2008 at 11:48 am
THE PATRIOT ACT WAS NAMED THE PATRIOT ACT SO THOSE WHO DO NOT AGREE WITH THE TERMS OF THE PATRIOT ACT, COULD BE LABELED UN PATRIOTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 6th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
if anybody is interested in reading more on this topic, you should check out Leo Tolstoy’s writings on patriotism.. I think a simple web search should allow you to read the essays online.
July 6th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
The word “nation” is from the Latin root which means “birth”. I for one was “born”, but I am over that now. The USA was born and should be over that by now too. Some words in their most common usage just don’t make too much sense. For me the only sensible use for “nation” in a political context is that of the “seperatist” sense. Individuals or groups who wish to see the “birth” of a new “nation”. So “nationalist” is a use that makes sense to me. Now that’s what is needed in the USA, “nationalism” in the sense of “seperatist”. If there were an important seperatist or nationalist movement in one of the union states. Now that would probably do a lot of good for the union as a whole if there were some nationalist movement somewhere.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
At the risk of sounding naive, the connotations between the terms patriot and nationalist are as different as the terms President and dictator. So, using the former in the same context as the latter is as asinine as calling “W.” the decider… Just don’t forget: every murderer on death row ,at one point, felt they were righteous for the acts that put them there.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
.
Mr Gregory Fegal,i concur !
America is a big business looking after the shareholders interests.
The consumers(the rest of us)are fodder to keep the grinding wheels greased
July 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
We will rise up when the timing is right. Unfortunately it will probably take a depression or some other large scale disaster to take the blinders off everyone else. Revolution never happens in time of prosperity but in times of dire straights. By waking people up we are sowing the seeds of truth in the hearts of our peers where our ideas grow and bear fruit. Very soon enough it will be time for harvest and we can restore our government back to being the true Constitutional Republic that it once was.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
finally! will someone let the older generation know the truth. their really clueless here in northern california.
July 6th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
The people fight the wars of the governments, not necessarily the will of the people.
If perhaps the leaders and presidents were to be the first to sacrifice their lives in a war, we would see the term patriotism disappear.?
If mankind exists another million years, things like peace, total prosperity, equality, and wisdom can never be, mankind is too proud.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Patriotism has NOTHING to do with supporting any government.
To paraphrase Thomas Paine, the duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government. I don’t believe the clowns that run things have even read the Constitution. They’re too busy lining their pockets with cash from the lobbyists.
Unless we get a bunch of patriots to stand up for the Constitution, we’re doomed.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Patriotism is a religion and religion is the device used to control our minds. All modern religions can be traced to ancient Bablyon and in turn, Sumer. The creator of the universe has no favorite country. The main issues are freedom with responsibility, liberty and dignity for all humans world wide. The forces that control the thought prisons of nationalism and religion must be exposed. They are the true cause of all the wars, poverty, and fatal enmities among people. We need to raise our collective awareness and stop giving them our power. Because in the end, they feed off of our aquiesence and fear.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Great, great article. May we one day be guided by reason and the human spirit.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Misguided patriotism exploited by totalitarians disturbs me, but what disturbs me even more is this notion that we can throw away national identities and embrace this “citizen of the world” nonsense.
The way I see it, maintaining national identities is necessary to resisting the world government, which can easily come to power when everyone embraces this “citizen of the world” thinking. No nationalities leads to a vacuum for global fascists to exploit. A world where everyone is an individual with no national boundaries is an unrealistic utopia and if we strive for that goal, it will just make things easier for the Caesars of this world.
I’m an American, born an American, and I love my country despite its many flaws and corrupt government, and I will die on this soil fighting for the dreams of the Founding Fathers.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:26 am
John McNeill wrote: I’m an American, born an American, and I love my country despite its many flaws and corrupt government, and I will die on this soil fighting for the dreams of the Founding Fathers.
I notice you said will die not may die, possibly you feel the “gun toten” Revolution is inevitable? Anyway, I’ll be there with you.
I am an 11th generation American. My forefathers came over on the “Whale” ship some 17 years after the “Mayflower”… some from that ship married into our family. When the time comes my destiny is clear.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:58 am
ThePatriot,
Yes I do believe that America will only be redeemed through a violent revolution. I hate violence and wish that our nation could be saved through reason, but I don’t see how that’s possible. Too many of our countrymen have their eyes closed and minds deceived. And I believe that its inevitable that our government will become totalitarian, and seek to destroy America from within, thus leaving a gateway open to world government.
I’m just a 4th generation American, yet I love this country dearly for the ideals it was founded upon and for how it made life better for my ancestors, who came from lands much more poor and despotic. No matter how strong the government is, or how unpopular my beliefs, I will die defending my country from the tyrants, and I’d be glad to fight by your side.
I just hope that enough of us band together when the time is right.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
John McNeill: I hear you, and I respect your position. I too will fight the fascists when the time comes, but not because I love the USA (I HATE the USA), but because I will be acting in my own self-interest to do so, because the US government truly “hates my freedoms.”
I am not, and never will be, a patriot. YOU can be a patriot and love the USA if you want. I’m just going to do what I believe in and what’s best for me. Are we cool on that?
July 7th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Gregory Fegel,
Sure I’m cool with your beliefs. I can’t force you to be a patriot.
And I’m not trying to criticize your beliefs, I’m just trying to understand the non-patriot’s point of view on the aftermath of the revolution. While I can understand why people would not want to identify with a country (individualism, a trait I share), do you believe that anarchy is a viable alternative? Do you think that there should still be a USA after the revolution happens (and succeeds, God willing)?
If not, how are we going to defend our newly gained freedoms from other fascist governments? Would we be able to maintain our freedom while living in an anarchic land formerly known as the USA? I don’t see how a free land could remain a free land without being a nation with small central government that oversees the defense of the nation. Sure local militias can work, but I don’t see how we could continually fight off all the armies of the world through guerrilla warfare and succeed.
And would the other nations of the world attack? I think so, considering an anarchy with lots of natural resources would seem ripe for the picking.
Please don’t be offended, I just want to know how the anarchy scenario could work out.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Don’t let blind patriotism or artificial borders blind you to the fact that there is only one human race. If you truly believe in the Bill of Rights and DOI, then you know that they are universal truths and are human rights that apply to everybody in the world. Nationalism generally leads to conflict.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Patriot act was named to deceive us, and having NOTHING to do with being a patriot or whatever. In fact, it is a commmunist setup and another lie for which Americans continue to believe this lie…
July 7th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
yo,
The Bill of Rights and the DOI don’t claim that borders are artificial or that patriotism is bad. If so, why did Thomas Jefferson speak of the blood of patriots (along with tyrants) being the natural manure of the tree of liberty?
It is true that the Founding Fathers believed in universal truths. But they were wise to know that not everyone in the world will embrace these universal truths. And that’s why they were building a country that did revolve around those truths.
I agree that there is one human race, and I reject that divisions of Black, White, Hispanics, Asian, etc. But I do not believe that humans will ever voluntarily reject all divisions and become one happy family. At least not on their own. That’s why we do need a country to safeguard our freedoms.
America is flawed, but it is still a nation that was conceived in the truths spoken in the Declaration of Independence, and even though many of my fellow Americans are controlled by the two-party dictatorship, the ideals of the Founding Fathers still resonate with many Americans. I can account for this based on my personal experiences.
If there is a chance to have a country that is based on the ideals of liberty, then it’s America. It’s a part of our history. It is our origins. And I believe Ron Paul has been the spark that will hopefully ignite a revolution that will restore our republic.
July 7th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I’d also say that nationalism is not the root cause of conflict.
I believe that human nature is the root cause of conflict. Sad and unfortunate truth.
If we lived in a state of anarchy, then humans will find other reasons to war with each other. Nationality is only an excuse along with religion and ideology.
July 7th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I also believe that nationalism is not the cause of conflict.
Human nature is the cause of conflict. It’s a sad and unfortunate truth.
Even if the whole world was in a state of anarchy, humans will still find reasons to wage war upon one another.
Nationality, religion, and ideology are just excuses for human greed and selfishness.
July 7th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I apologize for the double post.
I didn’t see the comment appear and so assumed that it didn’t get posted for whatever reason.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
John McNeill: I actually agree with you that government has a purpose, one of the most important of which is to protect ordinary folks from the rich and powerful, or their predatory neighbors. My own preference for anarchism is quite personal; I don’t propose anarchism as a panacea or a utopia.
When I was in the 7th grade my public school teacher punished me for reading classic English and American literature. This was after I gave book reports in class on Pearl S. Buck, Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe, and on Burdick and Lederer’s “Fail Safe” and “The Ugly American.” She banned me from the public library and required me to read only the kiddy books she approved of. I learned then that the public school system exists only to brainwash and indoctrinate, and definitely NOT to educate. Something very similar was done to me a few years later by a group of English teachers at a public high school in another State. There was NO ONE I could appeal to for help. Those experiences convinced me that it is the height of cruelty to send your children to public school, and for that reason I decided not to have any children.
Throughout US history, the US Constitution and the concept of “natural rights” have been largely ignored by the elected officials of the US government. The statement that “the Constitution is just a piece of paper” is affirmed by the fact that most of the officials of the US government have always ignored it. What good is the Constitution if the government and the populace ignore it? A person’s right to free speech, regardless of what the Constitution says, only has meaning if the people in power (or the people around you) respect that right. In my lifetime of 56 years in the USA, I have NEVER seen freedom of speech truly respected or allowed in the schools, in the workplace, in the media, or in government.
I now believe that it is the nature of government to be corrupt. I do not want to surrender my rights to the mob. I do not trust organizations.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:03 am
BTW, I don’t believe that a Revolution can ever result in any sort of utopia in the USA, because I think that most Americans are jerks and assholes who don’t understand the Constitution and wouldn’t like it if they did. And that’s never going to change. But I’d definitely like to see the USA collapse, because it is evil.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Don’t agree with my opinion that most Americans are jerks and assholes? Consider this: a majority (or a near-majority, take your pick) of US voters chose George W. Bush. Twice.
Also: Mai Lai, Haditha, Abu Graibh, 9/11, OK City, Waco, and countless other atrocities were not directly committed by US leaders, but by good old American boys and girls, who committed these murderous acts, not for profits, like the US government leaders and fat cats do, but simply because they enjoy hurting and killing people. If you want to unleash the death squads, just arm some Americans and turn them loose with a license to kill.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:40 am
I’m afraid that I do disagree with you on your assessment of Americans.
Now I don’t believe that Americans are morally superior to anyone else. But I also believe that Americans do not have a monopoly on jerks and assholes. I’ve found a lot of Europeans and Latin Americans, for examples, to be more obnoxious and rude than any stereotypical “Ugly American”.
Atrocities? The Rape of Nanjing, the Holocaust, the Holodomor, the Cultural Revolution, Saddam’s campaign against the Kurds, Kosovo, Chechnya, the Armenian Genocide, Bataan Death March, Ethiopian Red Terror, Darfur genocide, Rwanda genocide, Cambodia under Pol Pot, 9/11 (The hijackers were not American), the Palestinian Intifada (and for you anti-Zionists, include Israeli atrocities as well), Spanish Civil War, Katyn massacre, I could go on.
None of the above were directly perpetrated by average Americans. Perhaps you could argue that US government meddling and corporate influence may have had an influence on some of them, but the actual killings were committed by non-Americans.
The point is that Americans are not uniquely evil or bloodthirsty. If you’re going to judge Americans fit for serving in death squads, then why not say humans in general are fit for mass-murder? That’s what history shows. Atrocities happened before Americans and will continue on so long as human beings exist.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Gregory, I’m sorry to hear about your miserable school experiences, I’ve also had horrible experiences with the public school system, and was often shocked by how unprepared students are. When I was in a government class during my junior year in high school, we took a citizenship test that’s given to immigrants who want to be naturalized, and it’s a 100-question test consisting of simple questions like “What are the colors of the US flag”, “What’s the 2nd Amendment”, “How many judges are in the Supreme Court”, etc. And I was only one of two that actually passed the test (and got a 100). Yet it didn’t feel like any sort of accomplishment. Because they were really easy questions. Stuff a 6th grader should know!
And before someone points the finger and says “See Americans are stupid”, let it be known that the kids in my class were really smart people who were gifted in such fields as calculus, art, music, physics, etc. Much more talented than me. And yet I, an average student of no particular strengths, gets a perfect score on a test that almost the entire class fails?
It doesn’t show that Americans are dumb, but as you said, they are brainwashed by the evil school system. The public schools (with the exception a few wonderful teachers) dumb down material early on, and make American history and politics seem unappealing to kids. Students should study these subjects early on, but instead in 5th grade we were indoctrinated on HATING America. Yes, hating America. And when kids learn that America isn’t worth caring about, then they don’t give a rat’s ass about the Constitution or politics, following the course of apathy instead.
And with the recent studies that show how horrible vaccines are (which public schools mandate), I certainly would not want to enroll any future kids of mine into the public school system. I don’t know if I’d be able to commit to homeschooling, but of course this is assuming that homeschooling won’t be banned in 10 years. ;p
July 8th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Let’s not forget that Patriotism is standing up to nazi cops tasering some guy for shits & giggles. Patriotism as you discuss is that taught to control a population. If This generation doesn’t learn; then it’s our fault!
PS: The atrocities will begin here soon.