The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1916-01-27


patriotism" at the same time began
to distinguish itself from religion.
The instructive tribal loyalty became
transformed, by the aid of religion
and the fiction of kinship, into politi
cal loyalty. In number of instances
in political society, as In Tudor Eng
land, the struggle for priority between
religion and patriotism became so
acute as to help in the introduction
of a more subservient form of reli-
gion. Thus patriotism became eman-
cipated from religion, and the latter
became a mere accessory to patriot
ism as handmaiden of class rule.
A Most Accommodating Conception
Though universal religion did not
split up at the same time as the great
empire that gave 1t birth, patriotism
did so. The latter has, in fact. always
adapted, enlarged, or contracted itself
to fit the existing political unit,
whether feudal estate, village town
ship, country, kingdom, republic or,
empire. No political form has been
too absurd for 1t to fill with its loyal
ty ndiscordance q race, color or
language has been universally effec-
tive against it.
What Patriotism Is
What, then, is patriotism in essence
today? 1t is usually defined as being
devotion to the land of our fathers.
But which is the land of our fathers?
Our fathers came from many differ
ent parts of the world. The political
division of the world in which we live
is an artificial entity. The land has
been wrested from other races. The
nation they call "ours" is the result
of a conquest over original inhabi-
tants, and over ourselves, by success
sive ruling classes. Unlike the free
tribesmen we are hirelings; we pos
sess no country.
Nationality, of which patriotism is
the superstition, covers no real en-
tity other than that of common OPP
preston, a unified government 1t
does not comprise any unity of race,
for in no nation is there one pure
race, or anything like it. 1t does not
cover a unity of language, for scarce
ly a nation exists in. which several
distinct languages are not Indigenous.
Nor is it any fixity of territory, for
this changes from decade to decade,
while the inhabitants of the trans
ferred territory have to transfer their
allegiance, their patriotism, to the
new nation.
The Product of the Analysis
The only universal bond of nation
ality or patriotism that exists for us
today is, then, that of subsection to a
single government Patriotism in the
worker is pride in the common yoke
imposed by a politically united ruling
class. Yet it is this artificial entity
that we are called upon to honor
above life itself. This badge of pc.
litical servitude is called an object
worthy of supreme sacrifice. The
workers are expected to abandon all
vital interests and sacrifice all they
hold dear for the preservation of an
artificial nationality that is little more
, than a manufactured unit of discord d:
mere focus of economic and politi
cal strife.
Thus one of the noblest fruits Of
mans social evolution-the impulse
of sacrifice for the social existence
is being prostituted by the capitalist
class to maintain a system of explOi
tation, to obtain a commercial suprem
acy, and preserve or extend the boun
DIARIES of superfluous political en-
tity. The workers are duped by thu
ruling class into sacrificing them
selves for the preservation of a politi
co-economic yoke of particular form