Patriotism is harmful to the human race.

I am challenging Maikuru to debate the one (interesting) issue that we disagree on. If he chooses to accept, this should be very interesting. Definitions Patriotism: Love for or devotion to one's country. (Webster's) Harmful to the human race: Tends to be detrimental to the general well-being of the human race and/or human society as a whole. Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition (Webster's) I affirm the resolution: Patriotism is harmful to the human race. Note: In some of my explanations, I am speaking about an imaginary person named Bob and his country called Countryland instead of abstract concepts. I am doing this simply because it makes the pronouns easier to work with. Contention 1: Patriotism is taking pride in someone else's accomplishments and feeling hatred towards those who are different from you. This is a quote by a great man I know, and I think it really sums up patriotism. Patriotism encourages both of these irrational behaviors. My arguments for this contention are that 1) these are irrational and 2) irrational behaviors do more harm than good. a. Patriotism is taking pride in the accomplishments of others. If Bob takes pride in his country, then he is taking pride in his country's organization and its values. Bob is not supremely responsible for the organization of Countryland, nor did he determine the values that his country would uphold. Taking pride in the accomplishments of others results in an inflated ego. This can be beneficial since self-esteem is important, but it is harmful to have an inaccurate picture of one's own accomplishments. Accurate introspection is a useful life skill. And even if having an inaccurate picture of one's own accomplishments isn't harmful (which it may or may not be), it hurts one's ability to introspect. b. Patriotism causes hatred towards other countries. When Bob thinks that his country is greater than all others, it follows that all other countries are lesser. When something else is lesser than Countryland, Bob frowns upon that thing, which can devolve into hatred. I think that we can agree that hatred is, for the most part, a bad thing. Contention 2: Patriotism was a notable cause of both world wars. Sub-contention 2a: Patriotism is a subset of nationalism. Nationalism: loyalty and devotion to a nation ; especially : a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups Patriotism: Love for or devotion to one's country. (Webster's) These definitions are very similar, and according to these definitions, patriotism is a subset of nationalism. I want to make this clear, as I frequently cite patriotism in instances when nationalism is usually cited. Although nationalism does not imply patriotism, I argue in sub-contention 2b that for the purposes of this contention, they are the same. Sub-contention 2b: The time leading up to WWI was a time of great turmoil. Germany had just formed, and many of its citizens were feeling very patriotic. Germany was not alone. Competition between strongly patriotic countries led to heavy tensions, especially as countries and empires grew more powerful. These tensions eventually led to the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of WWI. Patriotism was an important cause of WWI. WWII was influenced by patriotism of the worst form. After the rise of Hitler, Germany moved into fascism. Patriotism was a driving force behind this social movement: fascism is only successful when citizens believe their country to be better than all others. The rise of Hitler and Nazism was the primary cause of WWII, and patriotism was a driving force behind Hitler's rise to power. I think we can agree that WWII was harmful to the human race. A general idea that can be taken from this contention is that patriotism causes war. If two nations each think themselves better than the other, neither will be satisfied while the other is still there, wasting space. Another prominent example of this is the United States: we use patriotism to justify invading other countries and "spreading democracy." Since America is obviously greater than all other countries, invading them is justified since we are helping them to be like us. Contention 3: Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons. (Bertrand Russell) This is related to my first contention, in that I am showing that patriotism is irrational, and that this irrationality does more harm than good. People may do good deeds or bad deeds for their country based on patriotism. They do these deeds blindly, simply because they are patriotic and want to support their country. Sure, patriotism can lead people to do good deeds as well as bad. But let us take Bob the patriotic one, and Alice the rational one. First, their country asks them to murder their children. Bob does it, since he is patriotic. Alice does not, because she sees that it is irrational to murder her children. Next, their country asks them to adopt an orphan. Bob still does it, since he's patriotic. But this time Alice also does it, since she rationally assesses the situation and concludes that adopting an orphan is helpful to humanity. Bob follows the morally correct path the first time, but not the second time. Alice follows the morally correct path both times, so Bob's patriotism is harmful to the human race while Alice's rationality is not. This goes to show that it is better to rationally consider each choice then to blindly follow what Countryland wants its citizens to do. Getting back to the Russell quote, patriotism causes people to make important decisions based off of trivial information: that Countryland wants them to do it. This failure of rationality is more harmful to humanity than if people consider their choices and make them independent of what Countryland wants them to do. Information on WWI, WWII: (1) http://en.wikipedia.org... (note that this page has many sources, and I cross-referenced for credibility) (2) History class notes from earlier this year