Someone Please Explain to Me Why Patriotism is Important

[bobd]

I just don't understand it. Our country is rapidly decending into (choose your favorite form of chaos) fascism, theocracy, a dictatorship, the new sparta, etc. ,etc., and yet we're supposed to be patriotic? We glorify killers and killing, war and destruction and we're supposed to blindly love it? The people that participate in all this are called patriotic and the people that disagree and have the tenerity to say so out loud are traitors. The people that remain blindly and neurotically optimistic about the future of this failing country are called patriotic and the people who have the unmitigated gall to point out it's only gonna get worse are derided and dismissed. For those who remain upbeat - kitties, and bunnies, and puffy clouds - please tell me why? Is it nostalgia for what once was? Nostalgia for the constitution that no one cares about any more?

I'm sick of the killing.
I'm sick of the dying.
I'm sick of the destructon.
I'm sick of the hate.
I'm sick of the media.
I'm sick of the government, both the 'thugs and their Dem enablers who got us into this mess and continue to keep us in it.
I'm sick of Kerry kowtowing to the Bush line.
I'm sick of "We the People" who seem to want to keep all this death and destruction, and devisivness going, and going, and going.

At this point it seems like all we can do is watch in horror as all comes crumbling down.

[Forkboy]

1. It sells flags which is good for the economy

:evilgrin:

[NuttyFluffers]

3. and beer, don't forget the beer

americans need watered-down beer flavored swill whenever they string up old glory. it's in the constitution somewhere, i swear!

[sweettater]

12. Which are made in China

[Forkboy]

20. ha...too true

:)

[mr blur]

2. I don't think that it is.

Someone once described it as "the last refuge of the scoundrel".

It's one of those things we're supposed to embrace to keep us all feel superior to other people (who use it for the same reason).

[sniffa]

4. patriotism is for squares

and voting is for oLd peopLe.

i shouLd get this new shirt out to urban outfitters.

[rock]

5. Patriotism is important to the leaders

not the followers, not the masses. It plays on one of the baser emotions: them versus us.

[Superfly]

6. Are you also sick of Americans being Killed?

[Forkboy]

9. to quote his post

I'm sick of the killing.

[bobd]

13. Well, Duh

I'm sick of Americans and Iraqis and Afghanis and Palastinians and Israelis and Brits and Spaniards and whoever else if over there dying for the neocon's dream of world domination.

[dbt]

7. Patriotism is the new opiate of the masses.

We cling to the romantic old notion of the Good Guys in the White Hats even as our John Wayne goes goose-stepping down the main drag at High Noon.

Fuck bu$h.

:grr:
dbt

[LittleApple81]

8. If they repeat the L.A. Book Fair Saturday panel Please watch it.

I watched it on repeat around 1 a.m. this morning on C-Span 2:

Panel: The Seduction of War

Anthony Swofford, "Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles"
Chris Hedges, "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning"
James Hillman, "A Terrible Love of War"
Leo Braudy, "From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity"
Samantha Power, "'A Problem from Hell': America and the Age of Genocide"—Moderato

IT WAS ABSOLUTELY GREAT.
Then they had Chalmers who wrote "The Sorrows of Empire" on the phone-in section of the program.
PLEASE DO NOT MISS IT IF THEY REPEAT THIS.

They really voiced a lot of your concerns in a marvelous way.

[KittyWampus]

10. Stop Confusing Nationalism/Jingoism With Patriotism

that's exactly what the GOP wants.

Patriotism is accepting your fellow countrymen for who and what they are. Celebrating each others successes and working together to improve each others failures.

The Common Good.

A phrase I try to impress on the DU mindset... but it seems like spitting in the wind.

P.S. The Common Good is not anti-thetical to Good Will amongst our global neighbors. In fact, the two are co mi ngled to a g reat extent.

[bobd]

14. A Pipe Dream to be Sure

Patriotism is accepting your fellow countrymen for who and what they are. Celebrating each others successes and working together to improve each others failures.

When's the last time that actually happened - even at the 10% level? We're so far away from that now I don't think it'll ever be possible.

Maybe if we killed just a few more people ....

[KittyWampus]

18. Ah, The Soft Bigotry of LOW EXPECTATIONS

my Dad was a beloved teacher... tough but fair.

He told me that kids ALWAYS rise to the level of expectations.

Is there a political party that has a habit of lowering expectations... for both its leader and for what the public should expet from its leaders?

[VolcanoJen]

19. Well said, cryingshame.

It's very, very important that we not equate the current Bush-led jingoism with patriotism.

I absolutely agree with your point.

[shrike]

11. "The love of one's country is a terrible thing."

That's a line from a song about the Northern Ireland conflict, but it suits the times so well. The song is called "The Patriot Game."

[doni_georgia]

15. Should we have blind patriotism: Quotes from our Founders

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, July 17, 1775

Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.

John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 69, March 14, 1788

If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33, January 3, 1788

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800

[Ardee]

16. Things change, times change, definitions change

The term 'Patriotism' is used for various purposes.
Some use it to express love of country ,some use it to explain why they oppose the government and its policies and some use it to denigrate those who do not share their own political opinions and view for the direction this nation should take.

[jobycom]

17. Patriotism has its place, but it is being abused

Patriotism is a wonderful tool to join together disparate people for a common purpose. It triggers the same instincts as family, and has the concept of "father" built into the title. It can be used to rally people, instill courage, and bring out feelings of self-sacrifice, even to the point of dying for people you don't know. Those are all useful and even admirable traits when a nation is invaded, when people must fight for self-defense.

It can also be used for less violent goals, as when Kennedy used it to justify his space programs.

It is now being used by unscrupulous liars to fill their own pockets with cash. That's its negative side.

Patriotism is fine, as long as people see it as the useful fiction it is, based upon arbitrary border drawn before out births. But when people mistake it for a real thing, they follow it, instead of using it.

The only way Democrats are going to overcome the idea that voting for W is patriotic is to counter with our own definition-- one that points out the failings of Bush's definition. Kerry does that sometimes. I hope it becomes part of his campaign strategy.