"Mad" Miles
07-06-2010, 02:14 PM
Some Thoughts on “Patriotism” (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/)
The Anti-Empire Report
by William Blum / July 6th, 2010
Dissident Voice
Some thoughts on “patriotism” written on July 4.
Most important thought: I’m sick and tired of this thing called “patriotism”.
The Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor were being patriotic. The German people who supported Hitler and his conquests were being patriotic, fighting for the Fatherland. All the Latin American military dictators who overthrew democratically-elected governments and routinely tortured people were being patriotic — saving their beloved country from “communism”.
General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, mass murderer and torturer: “I would like to be remembered as a man who served his country.”<SUP>1 (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/#footnote_0_19153)</SUP>
P.W. Botha, former president of apartheid South Africa: “I am not going to repent. I am not going to ask for favours. What I did, I did for my country.”<SUP>2 (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/#footnote_1_19153)</SUP>
Pol Pot, mass murderer of Cambodia: “I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country.”<SUP>3 (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/#footnote_2_19153)</SUP>
Tony Blair, former British prime minister, defending his role in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis: “I did what I thought was right for our country.”<SUP>4 (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/#footnote_3_19153)</SUP>
At the end of World War II, the United States gave moral lectures to their German prisoners and to the German people on the inadmissibility of pleading that their participation in the holocaust was in obedience to their legitimate government. To prove to them how legally and morally inadmissible this defense was, the World War II allies hanged the leading examples of such patriotic loyalty.
I was once asked after a talk: “Do you love America?” I answered: “No”. After pausing for a few seconds to let that sink in amidst several nervous giggles in the audience, I continued with: “I don’t love any country. I’m a citizen of the world. I love certain principles, like human rights, civil liberties, democracy, an economy which puts people before profits.”
I don’t make much of a distinction between patriotism and nationalism. Some people equate patriotism with allegiance to one’s country and government or the noble principles they supposedly stand for, while defining nationalism as sentiments of ethno-national superiority. However defined, in practice the psychological and behavioral manifestations of nationalism and patriotism are not easily distinguishable, indeed feeding upon each other.
(snip)
Use the embedded link in the title above to go to the rest of the article. He also talks about the BP Gusher and the legacy of Cold War / Anti-Communist ethos on contemporary U.S. foreign policy.
I thought of putting this in a reply to the Pride in America poll discussion, but it's a little long and veers into other important, but not directly reducible to that topic, subjects. So I put it here in waccoreader.
The first part of this article is totally apropo that discussion about patriotism. Blum says it as well as anybody can, the people he quotes are pretty unimpeachable. I am in pretty much complete agreement with his critique.
The Anti-Empire Report
by William Blum / July 6th, 2010
Dissident Voice
Some thoughts on “patriotism” written on July 4.
Most important thought: I’m sick and tired of this thing called “patriotism”.
The Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor were being patriotic. The German people who supported Hitler and his conquests were being patriotic, fighting for the Fatherland. All the Latin American military dictators who overthrew democratically-elected governments and routinely tortured people were being patriotic — saving their beloved country from “communism”.
General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, mass murderer and torturer: “I would like to be remembered as a man who served his country.”<SUP>1 (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/#footnote_0_19153)</SUP>
P.W. Botha, former president of apartheid South Africa: “I am not going to repent. I am not going to ask for favours. What I did, I did for my country.”<SUP>2 (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/#footnote_1_19153)</SUP>
Pol Pot, mass murderer of Cambodia: “I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country.”<SUP>3 (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/#footnote_2_19153)</SUP>
Tony Blair, former British prime minister, defending his role in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis: “I did what I thought was right for our country.”<SUP>4 (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/some-thoughts-on-patriotism-2/#footnote_3_19153)</SUP>
At the end of World War II, the United States gave moral lectures to their German prisoners and to the German people on the inadmissibility of pleading that their participation in the holocaust was in obedience to their legitimate government. To prove to them how legally and morally inadmissible this defense was, the World War II allies hanged the leading examples of such patriotic loyalty.
I was once asked after a talk: “Do you love America?” I answered: “No”. After pausing for a few seconds to let that sink in amidst several nervous giggles in the audience, I continued with: “I don’t love any country. I’m a citizen of the world. I love certain principles, like human rights, civil liberties, democracy, an economy which puts people before profits.”
I don’t make much of a distinction between patriotism and nationalism. Some people equate patriotism with allegiance to one’s country and government or the noble principles they supposedly stand for, while defining nationalism as sentiments of ethno-national superiority. However defined, in practice the psychological and behavioral manifestations of nationalism and patriotism are not easily distinguishable, indeed feeding upon each other.
(snip)
Use the embedded link in the title above to go to the rest of the article. He also talks about the BP Gusher and the legacy of Cold War / Anti-Communist ethos on contemporary U.S. foreign policy.
I thought of putting this in a reply to the Pride in America poll discussion, but it's a little long and veers into other important, but not directly reducible to that topic, subjects. So I put it here in waccoreader.
The first part of this article is totally apropo that discussion about patriotism. Blum says it as well as anybody can, the people he quotes are pretty unimpeachable. I am in pretty much complete agreement with his critique.