Patriotism is Justifiable

I intend to show here that patriotism is not only unjustifiable, it is (and has been) detrimental to the progress of humanity. Frankly, it has caused (among other things) wars, land conflicts, and racism, to which it is directly connected. However, I shall begin on an a priori note - what is patriotism? Patriotism is the supposition that the country into which you were born is better than other countries, and you should defend it for that reason. If all countries were equally good, then there would be no reason to favour your home country above them. This makes no sense, as no individual chooses the country into which they are born, or the race, for that matter, so to show pride in it is naive. Would you execute a serial killer's son because he is the son of a serial killer? No, but for some reason it is perfectly justified to kill an individual of another nation during a war, because they are part of that nation. Examples include not only the rape of Peking, but the destruction of Troy and countless other massacres both mythological and otherwise. Why did those Japanese soldiers murder and assault so many individuals in Peking? Because they were not Japanese. Therefore, it all boils down to patriotism. Not only does one not choose the country into which one is born, one does not choose the government or society into which one is born. If you have no control (or very minimal control) over these, why pride in the fact that they are there? The government and society into which one is born is the same - you don't choose it, so it's foolish tobe proud of it. Quite apart from the a priori fact that you do not choose the country into which you were born, patriotism has caused massive problems for humanity during the last several hundred years during which national patriotism can truly be said to have existed. Patriotism in the past was often intermingled with colonialism, and specifically the colonialist superiority complex. Early American colonialists were more likely to commit massacres against North American First Nations than British colonialists, this being because the American colonialists had the patriotic idea of manifest destiny, that suggested that America was exceptional in history and destined to conquer the entire world. Here are some massacres committed in the name of Manifest Destiny. 1868 - The Washita Massacre - General Custer attacks and slaughters a village of 140 sleeping Cheyenne warriors, killing approximately 75 women and children. Nothing provoked this attack except Manifest Destiny. 1872 - Skeleton Cave Massacre - 76 Yavapai men, women, and children killed in a cave in Arizona. 1890 - The Wounded Knee Massacre - US 7th Cavalry attack and kill 250 Sioux Men, Women, and Children because they would not move away to let American settlers in. Patriotism not only was the root cause of Manifest Destiny, but also of various other similar ideas throughout history. The Romans believed that it was their destiny to rule the world (and all patriotic Romans, of course, had to believe this) and so they proceeded to do so with merciless massacres of populaces including the massacre at Alesia in 52 BCE, where Gallic villagers stuck between Roman walls (partially intended to keep defenders in and partially to keep attackers out) and the Gallic fort starved to death. However, assuming that patriotism is somehow not responsible for various versions of Manifest Destiny in the Japanese, American, and Roman senses, it remains an idea that has no justification whatsoever. Patriotism also is of great help to the ills of blindness and ignorance, which have caused so many problems in the past. Specifically, patriotism allows us to assume that our country is always right, even though this is often not the case, what this also allows us to do is to go along with the group rather than think for ourselves. This is especially evident when individuals who go against a war are accused of being "unpatriotic." This is ludicrous, because it assumes that that war is right for the country, when it may or may not be. Patriotism also aids ignorance in that it creates tension between groups of individuals where it would not otherwise have been there. This is especially evident on both sides of the issue of immigration, where individuals, sometimes on both sides of the issue but mainly of the hosting nation, may even descend to violence. - Serbian patriots (members of the "Black Hand" terrorist group) were responsible for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the subsequent beginning of WWI, with all that that entailed for the future. - Senator McCarthy backed his communist witch hunts with the idea that those hunted were "unpatriotic," leading to the deportation of many of America's greatest writers, actors, civil servants and thinkers, many of whom weren't even communist let alone affiliated with the USSR. (2) - On the other side of the cold war, patriotism was appealed to by the USSR in various classrooms throughout Russia, where Soviet values were appealed to above all else. Therefore, patriotism convinces one to "love one's country" even if that is not always, or even often not, the right thing to do. Was it right to be a patriotic German during the Third Reich and all the atrocities that Germany committed at that time? Is it right to be a patriotic North Korean despite mass famine, a police state, and countless other atrocities? Even if patriotism, which is strictly defined as pride in one's country, is limited to only certain times when that country is doing right, how can one say for sure that that country is doing everything right, and why commit to the blind assumption that it is right to be proud of everything the country is doing? This sits on both sides of the political spectrum in many countries, including the US. Is it patriotic to pay your taxes? After all, that is part of the country that you are meant to be patriotic about - if paying your taxes isn't patriotic (as many Libertarians and others would tell you) then what is? After all, the taxation system is just as much a part of a nation as anything else. Therefore we can conclude that patriotism hasn't merely been the excuse for countless instances of terror and evil in the world, it is not even correctly defined, and thus CAN BE APPLIED TO ANYTHING. This is very important in terms of the way patriotism has in the past been utilized by propaganda in various countries - Italian Fascist, Russian Soviet, American Corporate, and various other propaganda systems use and have used this term because, at the end of the day, it can be applied to anything, from torture to taxation, from markets to government manipulation of resources. In conclusion, the fact that you were born in a certain country is nothing more than an accident of birth. Essentially, patriotism is very similar to ethnocentrism. If national flags had "white power" or "black power" written on them, they would be considered ethnocentric. However, because they represent a country, a set of borders, rather than a race, they seem to be justified, even though the conditions of being born as or in one or the other are identical in the fact that you have no control over them. At the end of the day, borders are merely artificial boundaries set to keep people apart and to make them despise one another for having the good or bad luck to be born in a certain country. To justify this by saying that your country is always right (as it must be to always be patriotic) is more than foolish. It has bred the kind of hate, lies, and propaganda that plague the world to this day. Patriotism, and more broadly nationalism, are therefore frankly and absolutely unjustifiable. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org... 2. http://en.wikipedia.org... 3. http://www.realussr.com...