Cheering a Monster's Death Is Not the Same as Patriotism

[upstatecajun]

Patriotism is truest when it is quiet, the acceptance of civic duty -- never with childish glee.

There was something unseemly about that gathering of college-age Americans outside the White House just before midnight on Sunday, cheering at the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. Some of the kids had draped flags over their shoulders; they chanted “USA, USA, USA.” I doubt there was a true patriot in the bunch.

Patriotism is not the same thing as cheering in the streets when your side wins the Super Bowl. Patriotism is truest and best when it is quiet, the acceptance of civic duty, as a kind of fate—never with childish glee, but with mature resolution. I think of Pat Tillman, sitting alone in a football stadium after September 11th, deciding that he needed to abandon the boyish game that he loved and instead enlist as a soldier.

In the great novels, as in the great American Westerns, the moment when the tyrant or town bully is killed by the townspeople is a solemn moment. Victory over evil requires also a moral compromise. In order to destroy evil, the townspeople must bloody their own hands.

http://www.alternet.org/world/150808/cheering_a_monster%27s_death_is_not_the_same_as_patriotism/

[Ninga]

1. I agree.

[OHdem10]

2. Those Navy Seals laid their life on the line to go in and take

out Bin Ladan.

It might seem "cleaner" to bomb the Compound and kill
people all around outside the compount--that old collateral
damage. You would never be able to say with confidence
that Osama was killed.

[tularetom]

3. I agree but why deny people the opportunity to be happy about it

For 10 years we've all heard that bin Laden was evil incarnate. After that's been pounded into your brain for that long, it's silly to expect people to not react the way they did.

[LibDemAlways]

4. I thought the kids outside the WH chanting "USA" looked

stupid, unseemly, and inappropriate - like a bunch of drunks celebrating a victory in a big game. The way they were playing to the camera was embarrassing.

[Myrina]

5. ... if the college kids were truly 'patriots', why haven't they enlisted?

:shrug: So thrilled to put a bullet thru someone else's head via satellite or PS3, then cheering in the streets like they actually accomplished something ...

[prairierose]

6. For our young people, the "patriotism" they have grown up with...

has been the patriotism of blowhards and cowards. The neo-cons used "patriotism" as a bludgeon to beat up Democratic politicians. They never actually exhibited any "patriotism" themselves. For them, it was and is bizarro world "patriotism". They could not serve in the military for various reasons...but cowardice might have been the real reason. But people like John Kerry and Max Cleland who did serve were held up as examples of cowards and liars. Who, really, were the liars?

Outing a serving NOC agent of the CIA would usually be called treason but not in their bizzaro world. For them, destroying a NOC agent working to find and interrupt nuclear material and weapons, was patriotic because it punished her husband who disagreed with their lies.

In the Ayn Rand/Leo Strauss universe they created, anything that makes them money or increases their power is patriotic and anything else, like compassion and honesty and dignity are the realm of cowards and losers.

How would our young people know how to act when they have had so many bad examples for so long?

I agree that their behavior looked very bad and it made me ashamed and unhappy but look at what they have seen held up as examples of people to emulate.

[Spinny Liberal]

7. I guess I'm childish then

because I really enjoyed the glee. At that moment, you couldn't tell who were Republicans or Democrats. They were just Americans.

[TwilightGardener]

8. I hate it when people tell me how to be patriotic.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. I'll chant "USA" when Michael Phelps wins 8 gold medals, or whenever our space shuttle launches.

While what happened Sunday may have been a necessary evil (I am somewhat doubtful that Bin Laden would have allowed himself to be taken alive) and I believe the President made the gutsy move, I didn't feel the need to cheer it.

Now, had the death of Bin Laden meant that even one of the 3,000 people who died on September 11th would come back to life, then yes, I would have been out there cheering. But such is not so....

[Peacetrain]

10. Those College Students have the right to yell and scream..

and with childish glee if they want.

If they want to wave the flags and shout USA USA.. they can with my blessing.

It was not them who ordered the murders of multiple thousands.. an started us down a 10 year involvement overseas.

But it was people their ages that have paid the highest price since.

I mean it is taking everything I can do to just not go out and run up and down the streets waving a flag, any flag.. just let them be