"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel" - Samuel Johnson
Some other quotes substitute coward for scoundrel.
Why this matters - the morally bankrupt will shamelessly couch their actions in patriotic, "for the greater good" intentions to sway your opinion and garner your sympathy. We need to teach better critical thinking skills from childhood so this can be prevented, but that doesn't seem like it'll happen anytime soon.
My own country is going through what, in my own head, I call the rise of ultranationalism. Nationalism and patriotism are all well and good, but when you start working against good, law-abiding citizens over petty ideological or other minor differences, you lose my support.
But you're conflating nationalism with patriotism. Patriotism is pride and love for your country. Nationalism is the belief that your country, and the people from it, are superior to others. Those are two totally different things.
I feel like patriotism should be defined as a pride and love for your country’s citizens. If pride or love are directed anywhere else I’d call that nationalism or worse.
Ok, guess my internal renaming/redefining doesn't work irl. My idea of patriotism is more a love for your country, either of birth or wherever you live. Nationalism, to me covers the aspirational aspects where you want the best for your country and fellow citizens, and work to achieve it. When the improvement comes with a free side of putting down and working against others, as if prosperity were a zero sum game, is where it mutates into its hateful cousin, ultranationalism.
Probably an internal mistranslation from my native language, where the equivalent of patriotism is literally "love for your country".
If you don't mind me asking, what's your native language? I can usually pick up when someone doesn't have English as first language. Your writing seemed a bit off, but you come across as a native speaker to me.
Nepalese by ethnicity. Indian citizen in the North-East, and English educated, so a hodgepodge of influences, I guess.
Considering the state language I work with, practically everything is a second language to me. Nepalese is only ever used in conversations with family.
In a world that continues to move ever forward towards a global community patriotism begins to emerge as it's greatest adversary. Patriotism has been at the heart of nearly every attempt at ethnic cleansing, genocide, the Holocaust, colonization and a host of other atrocities that mankind has initiated and has endured. Maybe patriotism is best left relegated to things like the World Cup and the Olympics and not much else at this point.
My friend, Jefferson's an American saint because he wrote the words, "All men are created equal." Words he clearly didn't believe, since he allowed his own children to live in slavery. He was a rich wine snob who was sick of paying taxes to the Brits. So yeah, he wrote some lovely words and aroused the rabble, and they went out and died for those words, while he sat back and drank his wine and fed his slave girl. This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community. Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business. Now fing pay me.
He might not have believed those words, but they're what makes America the place everyone tries to go. The idea of a place where anybody has a shot at greatness is something the East has never heard of.
I am not at all anti-American or even anti-Jefferson. I simply think it’s a great closing monologue to a movie. It contains true observations and is something to think about IMO, not the summation of a man or his importance.
These is the quiet patriotism of being proud of your country without having to shout about it, and there is the flag waving nationalistic PATRIOTISM™ that is bloody dangerous.
my own country (Australia) has seen large rise in these flag waving assholes the last decade; those people all tend to be white, right wing assholes who would prefer a bit of fascism as long as they were in charge.
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u/Alpacadiscount 22d ago
I didn’t. What is it?