akuma587 on 14 January 2009
Personally I think patriotism is a thing that blinds people in a lot of cases. Furthermore, I think it is a sentiment that politicians often abuse to get votes.
Patriotism can really do a number on people. Its like unconditional love. For instance, say your child rapes and murders 20 women. A lot of parents would still love their child even though he did those things. Obviously the analogy has its limitations, but you get my point.
But REALLY when it becomes a problem is when people assume they know what a country stands for, or that their values represent what the country stands for.
Say that the executive branch is doing something that violates the Constitution (a federal wiretapping program that is not overseen by the judicial system). The executive branch goes out of its way to hide the program and threatens those who even talk about it. The news spills out to reporters because of an informant who worked inside the government (a true patriot if you ask me who wouldn't allow his government to do something illegal). The U.S. Attorney's Office (executive branch) then tries to prosecute him for doing this. In reality, he was more patriotic than anyone by adhering to this country's principles.
The party in power who put this program in place (Republicans) ironically ran their party on the platform that they were more patriotic. They have essentially redefined what it means to be patriotic. Patriotism has become a pseudonym for 1) Not questioning what your government does and 2) agreeing with anything the military does and 3) substituting what you BELIEVE the country stands for rather than looking at what the country ACTUALLY stands for.
This is simply ludicrous. Allowing your government to do whatever it wants is the antithesis of patriotism in America historically. The Declaration of Independence was drafted in protest to "the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States". That is what American patriotism is historically. Yet here we have a party who is essentially moving us closer to a tyrannical system in the name of patriotism. How are those two ideas reconcilable? Why are people who claim to be the most "patriotic" often staunch supporters of a party that has clearly violated what this country stands for?
I am not saying patriotism is a bad thing, but patriotism is a tool that politicians use to manipulate people into accepting whatever the government does. If they question what the government does, that is unpatriotic. Although historically questioning how much power the government should have (especially the executive branch)) has been THE MOST patriotic thing a person could do.
Furthermore, many "patriots" are the first ones to criticize the judicial system. They say that judges who are appointed for life simply "legislate from the bench" (one of the most misleading terms ever invented). So what the hell? Do they only like SOME branches of the government and when the other branches of government do exactly what they are supposed to do (curtail the authority of the other branches of government) they get upset? That is simply ludicrous.
As Samuel Johnson once said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Patriotism has been twisted and contorted beyond recognition, while many "patriots" have allowed it to happen. That is patently unpatriotic.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
