Marsha quoted from Wikipedia: > Anti-patriotism is the ideology that opposes patriotism; it usually refers > to those with cosmopolitan views and is usually of an anti-nationalist > nature as well. Normally, anti-patriotism stems from the belief that > patriotism is wrong since it forces people born in a country, whether they > like it or not, regardless of their individuality, to love the country or > sacrifice themselves for it; consequently, people who oppose patriotism may > oppose its authoritarianism, while others may believe that patriotism leads > to war because of geopolitical disputes so it may be viewed from a pacifist > or anti-militarist point of view. Usually, this term is used in a pejorative > way by those who defend patriotism or nationalism, and terms such as > cosmopolitanism or world citizenship may be used to avoid the bias that > comes from the typical usage of the word anti-patriot or anti-patriotism.[1]
Because Platt quoted Thomas Sowell writing in The Washington Times: > "In France, after World War I, the teachers´ unions launched a systematic > purge of textbooks in order to promote internationalism and pacifism. Books > that depicted the courage and self-sacrifice of soldiers who had defended > France against the German invaders where called `bellicose´ books to be > banished from the schools. . . . The once epic story of French soldiers' > heroic defense against German invaders at Verdun, despite massive French > casualties, was now transformed into a story of horrible suffering by all > the soldiers at Verdun -- French and German alike. In short, soldiers once > depicted as national heroes were now depicted as victims - and just like > victims in other nations´ armies. . . . Did it matter? Does patriotism > matter? France, where pacifism and internationalism were strongest, became > a classic example of how much it can matter. . . . During World War II, > France collapsed after just six weeks of fighting and surrendered to Nazi > Germany. . . Charles de Gaulle, Francois Mauriac, and other Frenchmen > blamed a lack of national will or general moral decay for the sudden and > humiliating collapse of France in 1940. " > > Sowell concluded with a sobering question: > > "Our media are busy verbally transforming American combat troops from > heroes into victims, just as the French intelligentsia did - with the added > twist of calling this `supporting our troops.´ Will that matter? Time will > tell." > > Reminds me of the Hippie chant of the 60´s during the Cold War expressing a > similar lack of patriotism - "Better red than dead." dmb says: Sure, patriotism matters. France, as well as the rest of Europe, felt the full force and horror of extreme forms of nationalism. Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan were extremely nationalistic in this period. They were also extremely anti-intellectual, militaristic, anti-democratic and bigoted. Like Sowell's French heroes, Hitler also thought that the lack of patriotism was a sign of decadence or moral decay. (The Washington Times is perhaps the most right-wing newspaper in the USA, by the way.) If Pirsig is right, the opposite is true. Patriotism is part and parcel of the all-out glorification of social level morality. It's not that those dominated by intellectual values are likely to hate their country or even fail to love it. But I think that reasonable adults are willing to admit that there government does good things and bad things, just like every other government. When it comes to patriotism, it is simply too dangerous to believe that love is blind, to believe we are above criticism or beyond improvement. Patriotism shouldn't be equated with blind faith, sentimental clap trap or delusions of grandeur but that's exactly what it is in the hands of today's conservatives. It is used to force compliance with certain attitudes and feelings. It is sheer nonsense and wouldn't pay any attention to it except that it happens to be causing a lot of damage these days. How do you think we ended up in Iraq? It was the worst kind of blind patriotism, that's how. We've spent trillions of dollars, tens of thousands of lives and a whole world of good will for nothing. Zip, zero, nada. I'm with Obama, who said something like, "I'm not against all wars. I'm just against stupid wars". _________________________________________________________________ Use video conversation to talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger. http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/connect_your_way.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_messenger_video_072008 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
