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Undermining the Patriotic Lie
Emma Goldman asked, “What is patriotism? Is it love of one’s birthplace, the
place of childhood’s recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations?” I agree
with Emma Goldman that unfortunately this is not really what patriotism is.
In truth, patriotism promotes the idea that the earth is divided into little
spots, each with an iron gate surrounding it. Everyone thinks that their own
spot is best, and that the people in their spot are the grandest, strongest, and
most intelligent. Every person believes that it is his/her duty to defend and
protect their spot. They have been chosen by the Lord to do this. Everyone
should fight and die in the attempt to impose their superiority over others.
From infancy, the mind of a person is poisoned with this idea.
Many may argue that this is all false. Patriotism is, as the dictionary says, a
love for one’s country. Loyalty. What is wrong with loving your country? one may
say.
Patriotism is not simply pride, however. If it was simply pride, perhaps it
could be forgiven. But patriotism turns into nationalism, which is asserting the
interests of one’s own nation above the interests of other nations.
Nationalism is what drives people to fight wars in the name of defending their
country. Actually it is just imposing one’s power over the rest of the world. It
is not even the people who decide this war. It is the governments, the
authoritarian figures, who blind the people to reality by encouraging them to
believe in false lies about patriotism. Wars are fought in the name of defending
one’s country from attack, warding off a threat that is very often not a threat;
merely someone wishing to retain their differences peacefully.
As Carlyle says, “War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight
their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village;
stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild
beasts against each other.”
Another setback of patriotism is that it is costly. Wars obviously lead to
immense expenditure – weapons, salaries for the military, submarines, airplanes,
spy equipment etc. If military costs continue as they are doing, and continue to
rise, they will surpass the needs of the people. There will no longer be enough
resources for life, only for death.
The possible original idea of patriotism is thwarted by the “patriot” missiles.
It is sad that the government has attached the word ‘patriot’ to the name of a
missile as if to justify the United States’ usage of a destructive weapon in the
name of patriotism.
People say that we need a standing army, navy, air force – all to protect the
country from foreign invasion. However, is that what peace is? Suspicion, hate,
rivalry, killing, death, superiority? It certainly seems that this idea is
encouraged in our society.
Patriotic Americans think greatly of the fact that they inhabit the most
powerful country in the world. They will kill anyone who from economic necessity
will go against an industrial magnate. Many think that there is only one choice
– to agree with the American government.
Some may refer to America as the land of dreams, as the land of possibilities.
This raises the question as to whether patriotism is only for those who live in
a good country with what is supposedly known as a better government system. But
how do we know whether our government is good if we do not look at it from other
people’s perspectives, and not just from our own?
Patriotism requires blind, unquestioning faith in your country.
However, people are really not blind and linear. People can think. People can
ask questions. The problem is that society has taught us things that are very
questionable, and perhaps it is time to question them.
Here are a few examples to show some of the damage that has been done that is at
least partly because of patriotism.
For instance, the Iraq War is an example of people following their government
blindly. So many did not question. They did not bother to see if Iraq was really
a threat. They believed their government without questioning, when after all
Iraq was never a threat. There were no ‘weapons of mass destruction’ as the
government had claimed.
One of the reasons why people did not question the government was their
patriotism that also became nationalism.
Additionally, when Hurricane Katrina struck, the TV coverage of the ghastly
performance of the Bush administration was hushed. Dan Rather called the lack of
coverage the fear of having a "flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around
your neck".
Another example is that of in India, for many years an anti-Muslim propaganda
flourished and wars occurred between Pakistan and India over the issue of to
which country Kashmir belonged. This has brought about misery and angst
particularly to the people of Kashmir over the years, and also a ghastly hatred
of Muslims by Hindus in India. The Gujarat riots which took place in 2002 are an
example of this. All of this resulted from so-called national pride and
territorialism, and a fear of those who are even slightly different. In other
words, patriotism. [color=black][/color]
Lastly, over the last few years a tactic the US government has used to win
public approval for fighting the war against ‘terrorism’ has been to attach the
word ‘patriot’ to a title of legislation, the Patriot Act. In other words,
patriotism is used as a way to convince the American people that we should be
willing to give up our rights in order to fight ‘enemies’. Under the Patriot
Act, the American government can detain anyone – particularly ethnic minorities
and immigrants – without due process. There are concerns that under the new
definition of terrorism any individual or group that speaks out against the
government could be considered a terrorist. The First and Fourth Amendments are
also under attack by the Patriot Act. Regarding the Fourth Amendment (Right to
Privacy) the Patriot Act gives the FBI the right to spy on people in
unimaginably intrusive ways.
This is what is done in the name of patriotism.
In conclusion, let me say that I believe patriotism will be overcome.
Intelligent people will know that patriotism is too narrow and limited a concept
to meet the needs of this time.
Perhaps imperialism and centralisation of power will bring about a solidarity
between the oppressed nations of the world. This solidarity will not fear
foreign invasion because eventually all the workers will tell their masters to
do their own killing. They have done it long enough for them.
We have the power to overcome patriotism. As Arundhati Roy, an eminent Indian
political and social activist, remarks, “History is giving you the chance. Seize
the time.”
bravenet.com