Is patriotism obsolete?
jose
Thomas Sowell
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | On the eve of a holiday that used to
stir patriotic emotions -- the Fourth of July -- it has been painful to
see examples of how little remains of that glue that holds a society
together.
Perhaps the worst of these signs of national disintegration was the New
York Times' recent revealing to the whole world the covert methods by
which the American government has been tracking the money that finances
international terrorism.
The usual excuses about "the public's right to know" ring even more
hollow than usual in this case. The public was not dying to know the
methods by which their lives were being safeguarded. Only the
terrorists were helped by these revelations.
Americans may in fact be dying literally now because of what the
terrorists have been told -- and ultimately because a jerk inherited
the New York Times. As usual, the mainstream media circled the wagons
around one of their own. The media spin is that the terrorists were
already bound to know that we were monitoring their international
transfers of money. The Times says terrorists had to "suspect" this.
This is an all-or-nothing argument. There are vast numbers of
terrorists around the world and not all of them are affiliated with the
same organizations. Nor is there any reason to believe that they all
have the same level of knowledge or sophistication.
Whatever knowledge or suspicions some of the terrorist leaders may have
had about American surveillance of the money transfers that finance
their operations, that does not mean that all the terrorists knew about
all the methods or about all the countries that were cooperating to
track them down by their money trails.
After all, so many of these terrorists would not have been captured or
killed if they were infallible.
The media may not publicize the casualties we inflict on the terrorists
but they are vastly greater than the casualties that terrorists inflict
on Americans, even though too many in the media focus almost
exclusively on the latter.
Not only do the terrorists now know how they are being tracked, some of
the countries that have secretly helped in that tracking may now back
off from helping, now that the New York Times' revelations can create
internal political problems or fear of terrorist retaliation in those
countries.
The all-or-nothing idea that secrets are either secret from everybody
or secret from nobody will not stand up under scrutiny. Back during
World War II, the Chicago Tribune made the devastating revelation that
the United States had broken the Japanese code and could read their
military plans in advance.
This was an enormously important secret, especially during the early
days of the war, when Japan had overwhelming naval superiority in the
Pacific and was seeking to destroy the remnants of the American Pacific
fleet that had not already been destroyed in the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor.
Fortunately for this country, the Japanese did not read the Chicago
Tribune or did not believe it. In other words, the secret was out, but
it was not out very far. There are degrees of secrecy, as with
everything else.
New York Times has spread the secret of American financial surveillance
of terrorists around the world, undermining or destroying this method
of tracking them, as well as undermining the cooperation that can be
expected in the future from countries fearful of political or terrorist
repercussions.
Patriotism is not chic in the circles of those who assume the role of
citizens of the world, whether they are discussing immigration or
giving aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime.
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was as much due to the
internal disintegration of the ties that bind a society together as to
the assaults of the Romans' external enemies.
The pride of being a Roman citizen was destroyed by cheapening that
citizenship by giving it to too many other people. The sense of duty
and loyalty eroded among both the elites and the masses.
Without such things, there could be no Roman Empire. Ultimately,
without such things, there can be no United States of America. In
neither case have tangible wealth and power been enough to save a
country or a civilization, for the tangibles do not work without the
intangibles.
GW Chimpzilla's Eye-Rack Neocon Utopia
> Is patriotism obsolete?
>
> Thomas Sowell
>
Peace and prosperity for the modern world.
War and poverty are out of style.
--
There are only two kinds of Republicans: Millionaires and fools.
Roedy Green
quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said :
>Is patriotism obsolete?
most definitely and a great many famous people agree with me:
“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain
occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
“War does not determine who is right — only who is left.”
~ Anonymous
“A sea of red coats and white trousers, in perfect step, the airs of
the Republic blasted with particular gusto, the kind of sing-along oom
pah pah of which patriotism is made.”
~ Anonymous
“I love America more than any other country in this world, and,
exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her
perpetually.”
~ James Baldwin
“Patriotism is fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a
stone, and as irrational as a headless hen.”
~ Ambrose Bierce
“Patriotism: combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one
ambitious to illuminate his name.”
~ Ambrose Bierce
“God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for
oppression and bloodshed.”
~ Louis Buñuel
“Patriotism is the religion of hell.”
~ James Branch Cabell
“I found out why war is hell — army authority is absolute. You are
defended and judged by the same kind of people who accuse and
prosecute you.”
~ Michael Caine, Playboy, 1996
“The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love
stop at the border?”
~ Pablo Casals
“'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no patriot would ever think
of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying 'My mother,
drunk or sober.'”
~ G. K. Chesterton
“Many a bum show has been saved by the flag.”
~ George M. Cohan
“Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies
is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism,
and find criticism subversive.”
~ Henry Steele Commager
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of
all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily
defeat us.”
~ William O. Douglas
“Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.”
~ John Dryden
“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome
nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate
them!”
~ Albert Einstein
“No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels.
Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty
of patriots.”
~ Barbara Ehrenreich
“When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I
am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its
heart.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals, 1824
“Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without
freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.”
~ Bergen Evans
“That kind of patriotism which consists in hating all other nations.”
~ Elizabeth Gaskell
“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism,
when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
~ General Charles de Gaulle
“Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in
England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But,
after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy
and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it
is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be
brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to
do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers
for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works
the same in any country.”
~ Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and
Luftwaffe Commander in Chief
“Patriotism ruins history.”
~ Goethe
“Patriotism… is a superstition artificially created and maintained
through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man
of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and
conceit.”
~ Emma Goldman
“Patriotism: noun, a nationalistic cheerleading that causes a peculiar
form of blindness that magnifies the faults of your rivals and makes
your own country's faults invisible.”
~ Roedy Green
“Patriotism tugs at the heartstrings. It is matter of loyalty. This
goes right back to our hunter-gatherer past. You must support your
chief no matter what a bastard he is. The alternative is being
clobbered by the neighbouring tribe. My tribe right or wrong.”
~ Roedy Green
“Patriotism is like the ring in the nose of a pig. It lets somebody
else lead you around by the nose. If you are super patriotic, most of
your critical faculties are turned off. You are a patsy.”
~ Roedy Green
“I am a citizen of planet Earth first, Canada second.”
~ Roedy Green
“Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its
deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other
countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism,
however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies,
while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It
wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest,' but greatness
is not required of a country; only goodness is.”
~ Sydney J. Harris
“Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason? Why, when it prospers,
none dare call it treason.”
~ Sir John Harrington
“ A politician will do anything to keep his job even become a
patriot.”
~ William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) US newspaper publisher, Recalled
on his death 14 Aug 1951
“The U.S. public is depoliticized, poorly informed on foreign affairs…
and strongly patriotic in the face of a struggle with ‘another
Hitler’. Even though the public is normally averse to war, even with
modest propaganda efforts… the public can be quickly transformed into
enthusiastic supporters of war.”
~ Edward S. Herman
“The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to
power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary
government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the
clergy.”
~ David Hume
“One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst
wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully
and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are
profoundly virtuous.”
~ Aldous Huxley
“At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity,
human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and
stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of
religious or political idols.”
~ Aldous Huxley
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the
blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
“Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.”
~ Samuel Johnson
“When a dog barks at the moon, then it is religion; but when he barks
at strangers, it is patriotism!”
~ David Starr Jordan
“Patriotism does not oblige us to acquiesce in the destruction of
liberty. Patriotism obliges us to question it, at least.”
~ Wendy Kaminer
“Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are
hatched.”
~ Guy de Maupassant
“The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy,
but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher
plain.”
~ George McGovern
“In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a
favorite device of persons with something to sell.”
~ H. L. Mencken
“Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a
sign that he expects to be paid for it.”
~ H. L. Mencken
“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and
usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more
than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us
when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime;
he is a good citizen driven to despair.”
~ H. L. Mencken
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal
opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.”
~ Edward R. Murrow
“Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above
principles.”
~ George Jean Nathan
“Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred, and always stronger
than internationalism.”
~ George Orwell
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
~ George Orwell
“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed
by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing
about them.”
~ George Orwell
“Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the
obvious.”
~ George Orwell
“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed
by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing
about them.”
~ George Orwell
“If patriotism is 'the last refuge of a scoundrel,' it is not merely
because evil deeds may be performed in the name of patriotism, but
because patriotic fervor can obliterate moral distinctions
altogether.”
~ Ralph B. Perry
“Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the
world.”
~ Plutarch, On Banishment
“To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by
geography.”
~ George Santayana
“A man's feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should
survey the world.”
~ George Santayana
“Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is
their own.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“The peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans
will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism:
'Our country — when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put
right.'”
~ Carl Schurz
“You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of
the human race.”
~ George Bernard Shaw
“Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.”
~ George Bernard Shaw
“A healthy nation is as unconscious of its nationality as a healthy
man of his bones. But if you break a nation's nationality it will
think of nothing else but getting it set again.”
~ George Bernard Shaw
“I can train a monkey to wave an American flag. That does not make the
monkey patriotic.”
~ Scott Ritter
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand
by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the
degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to
support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is
unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency
or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either
event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the
president or anyone else.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt
“Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing
for their country.”
~ Bertrand Russell
“Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial
reasons.”
~ Bertrand Russell
“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all
other countries because you were born in it.”
~ George Bernard Shaw
“Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous
to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the
popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a
true test of moral character.”
~ Margaret Chase Smith
“Patriotism means unqualified and unwavering love for the nation,
which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for
unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and
penitence for them.”
~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn
“Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the
tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”
~ Adlai Stevenson
“During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable, even though it
has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.”
~ Howard Thurman
“The time is fast approaching when to call a man a patriot will be the
deepest insult you can offer him. Patriotism now means advocating
plunder in the interest of the privileged classes of the particular
State system into which we have happened to be born.”
~ Leo Tolstoy
“Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is
wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk
this and be a man.”
~ Thomas Tusser
“The government is merely a servant — merely a temporary servant; it
cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is
wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to
obey orders, not originate them.”
~ Mark Twain
“Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is
wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk
this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an
unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your
country, let me label you as they may.”
~ Mark Twain
“Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country,
under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps
multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab
slices of other people's countries, and keep them from grabbing slices
of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood of
his hands and works for 'the universal brotherhood of man' — with his
mouth.”
~ Mark Twain
“Born in iniquity and conceived in sin, the spirit of nationalism has
never ceased to bend human institutions to the service of dissension
and distress.”
~ Thorstein Veblen
“It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy
of the rest of mankind.”
~ Voltaire
“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
~ George Washington
“Beer commercials are so patriotic: 'Made the American Way.' What does
that have to do with America? Is that what America stands for? Feeling
sluggish and urinating frequently?”
~ Evelyn Waugh
“Patriotism has become a mere national self assertion, a
sentimentality of flag-cheering with no constructive duties.”
~ H. G. Wells
“Our true nationality is mankind.”
~ H. G. Wells
“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.”
~ Oscar Wilde
“There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers
and finds its roots in the harshness of our puritan past. It is very
suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity, hostile to
science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It
sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance
to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our
constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to
millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.
The other vision finds its roots in the spirit of our founding
revolution and in the leaders of this nation who embraced the age of
reason. It loves freedom, encourages diversity, embraces science and
affirms the dignity and rights of every individual. It sees America as
a moral nation, neither completely religious nor completely secular.
It defines patriotism as love of country and of the people who make it
strong. It defends all citizens against unjust coercion and irrational
conformity.
This second vision is our vision. It is the vision of a free society.
We must be bold enough to proclaim it and strong enough to defend it
against all its enemies.”
~ Rabbi Sherwin Wine
“You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face
reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.”
~ Malcolm X
--
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Who's in charge Cheney or Bush? Ask the people who work for them:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/