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"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." There's a critical difference between nationa
by javert 17y ago
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."
There's a critical difference between nationalism and patriotism. What that quote is talking about is nationalism.
Here is what the quote should say:
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is good because its people, culture and government are fundamentally moral."
By "moral," I mean "good for human life."
It's right to be patriotic about America. In this country, more than anywhere in the world, people are free. Free to live their own lives, to generate wealth, and to generate happiness. And we have a culture that supports reason, productiveness, and life in general.
Of course there are lots of exceptions to that, like protracted and pointless wars in the Middle East, but those are not fundamental artifacts of the conception of America; they are side-effects of bad culture today.
- coffeemug 17y agoBy your definition of patriotism, there is no such thing in practice. It always degrades from loving your country because you were born in it, to hating other countries because you weren't born in them. It's extremely rare to see a benevolent version of patriotism the way you describe it.
- gaius 17y agoIt's extremely rare to see a benevolent version of patriotism the way you describe it. I see it every weekend at Rugby matches.
- gaius 17y agoPatriotism is the belief that people who happened to be born on this bit of land created something unique and greater than the sum of its parts here, and the desire to be a part of that and live up to its ideals. If someone doesn't feel that where they are now, and doesn't relocate to somewhere where they can feel it, well, I feel a bit sorry for them.
- gloob 17y agoOf course there are lots of exceptions to that, like protracted and pointless wars in the Middle East, but those are not fundamental artifacts of the conception of America; they are side-effects of bad culture today. This is fundamentally the same argument that communists use when they are asked about Stalin or Ceausescu. I dislike the notion that all bad parts of an arbitrary system can be explained away by saying "Well, that's not really the system. The real system has zero-latency networks and functional immortality and no-one ever cries." The "fundamental artifacts of the conception of America" are infinitely less important than what America actually is. The same applies to communism, anarchism, and C++.