March 12, 2006
by James Rothenberg
We have a right to defend our country, our life and limb, our home and family. There are few that would not be willing to defend these things. But what made the other side want to attack? They would first have to be convinced that they were defending something. So it is that governments and their subsidiaries come to propagandize their people, to instill in them a proper way of thinking...that of patriotism.
The government uses patriotism for its own ends, particularly its war ends. They own it, control it, and dole it out as needed. No politician has ever been able to stand up to it. You can accuse a politician of almost anything and they will not blink an eye. Accusing them of being unpatriotic will bring you face to face with indignant wrath. What signal would it take for people to free themselves of this Goliath of self-restraint - the urge not to appear unpatriotic? To question the primitiveness of patriotism? Some have:
A. Einstein (plainly): "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!"
G. B. Shaw (succinctly): "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."
M. Twain (sardonically): "The newspaper-and-politician-manufactured patriot often gags in private over his dose; but he takes it, and keeps it on his stomach the best he can. Blessed are the meek."
(and penetratingly): "A man can seldom - very, very seldom - fight a winning fight against his training; the odds are too heavy. For many a year - perhaps always - the training of [England and America] had been dead against independence in political thought, persistently inhospitable toward patriotism manufactured on a man's own premises, patriotism reasoned out in the man's own head and fire-assayed and tested and proved in his own conscience..The patriot did not know just how or when or where he got his opinions, neither did he care, so long as he was with what seemed the majority - which was the main thing, the safe thing, the comfortable thing."
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L. Tolstoy (heroically): "From infancy, by every possible means - class books, church services, sermons, speeches, books, papers, songs, poetry, monuments - the people is stupefied in one direction.before they look round, there will be no more admirals, presidents, or flags, or music; but only a damp and empty field of battle, cold, hunger and pain; before them a murderous enemy; behind, relentless officers preventing their escape; blood, wounds, putrefying bodies, and senseless, unnecessary death."
E. St. Vincent Millay (eloquently): "I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death."
A grieving Iraqi father cried, upon losing his son at the beginning of the US invasion, "Why didn't the British and American people stop their leaders from doing this?" For those who find themselves unable to answer his most fair question, then or now, is to hint at the enormous power of the leadership to marshal events in its own way. To eliminate an entire party of opposition, what could have been the anti-war party but for its desire to preserve itself in the comfort of the flag. Salute that flag, stand up for it when it passes, challenge those who would rip and burn it and hymns will be written for you. But who will answer that Iraqi father's question?
What kind of a toll will this take on us as a people? To have acquiesced? The publicity agents named it "Shock and Awe", not intended for a foreign audience but rather a rallying cry to pump up the sheep here at home, to make us feel warm and proud of our coming assault on a country that could launch not a single plane, a single bomb against the greatest technological power ever known to great mankind - that, despite the train of official denials from Washington, was known in advance to be virtually defenseless! The proof? We attacked.
Our patriotism comes at a price, but I'm not thinking of that noble sacrifice that we speak of in hallowed terms at graveside ceremonial occasions. It's the need to rearrange the entire world of thoughts and events to our advantage and its sacrifice is extracted by taking bits and bits of our honor away, our humanity.all to suit this falsification. Preserve freedom by limiting it. Preserve democracy by subverting it. Preserve law by ignoring it. Preserve justice by denying it. Preserve life by taking it. The hypocrite meets the patriot in the mirror.
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James Rothenberg [send him email] was born in 1939 and made his living as a professional golfer. His trade articles have appeared in USGA Golf Journal and PGA Magazine, as well as authoring the book, The Skeptical Golfer. In more recent years this skepticism led him into the field of social and political criticism, exchanging "making a living" for "living for making", that is, making the slightest dent in establishment hypocrisy and double standards.
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