From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Mon Apr 07 2003 - 21:58:47 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
> Charles asked
>
>
>>Is patriotism love of one's country, or love of one's country's
>>government? It makes a big difference. Then there's the distinction
>>between the ideal image of one's country's government, and any current
>>representation...
>>What your patriotism identifies as one's focus of love makes a large
>>difference.
>
>
> Yes it does. In an analogy between persons, do you love
> your son, or do you love the ideal image of your son?
>
> Samantha writes
>
>
>>I deeply love the principles this country was founded on. I
>>deeply abhor the cancerous growth that dares to posture as the
>>legitimate government of a [once] free people. I have no
>>loyalty to that which is set to the destruction of what I love.
>
>
> I'm sorry, but it's not the same thing to "love" the various
> high-minded principles that have been enunciated from time to
> time in history. I presume that you love the Declaration
> of the Rights of Man, or even, if you were to objectively read
> it, the Soviet Constitution of the former U.S.S.R. Like the
> founding documents of the United States, all these put forth
> great principles I'm sure you would love.
A country is only as good as its guiding prinicples. I don't
love the country just because I happen to be in it. The USSR
constitution does not speak of government being strictly the
servant of the people to guarantee their inalienable rights.
That makes all the difference in the world - a difference that
most Americans seem to have forgot.
>
> Patriotism, or love of country, is not the same thing at all.
> Either you have a deep emotional bond to an actual nation and
> its people, or you do not. Perhaps only a small majority of
> the members of most Western nations today have such a loyalty.
>
If that is all patriotism is then it is worthless.
> Here, to further remind you of what patriotism consists, is
> the Pledge of Allegiance, exactly as I had to recite it on my
> first day of school in September 1953:
>
> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
> States of America, and to the republic for
> which it stands, one nation indivisible with
> liberty and justice for all.
>
The republic for which it stands is precisely what I was
speaking of. It is not the same thing as this physical country.
Neither is liberty and justice for all. All of these are
concepts, not matters of geography.
> American patriots are those individuals who can read these
> words, and agree with every nuance of sentiment they contain,
> and who indeed are themselves allied with that republic.
>
Yes. And that does not preclude utter contempt for the
government that is shredding the meaning of these words every day.
- samantha
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