The nature of patriotism

Just came across this awesome quote in a history blog, and I had to share it:

"Patriotism is not blind devotion to a cause or to a country. It is a clear-eyed devotion to what is good and true about a country's heritage and culture, a commitment to standing with one's fellow citizens to protect one's country and countrymen from an unjust aggressor, and a love that is unafraid to look squarely at the country's historical faults and learn the lessons that history can teach."

http://www.shellynna.blogspot.com/2003_01_26_shellynna_archive.html#88249455

:hi:

territorialism.

patriotism is like religion....

it exploits basic psychological and emotional needs and impulses in order to brainwash a people into following the battlecry of an instition.

Patriotism is simply defined as one's love or devotion to their country. This simple definition does not make any exception for the ideology or form of government that one's country is under.

"Patriotism" is an exploitation of a person's psychological search for security by seeking membership within an extended family (tribalism) that takes a political dominion over one's surroundings (world). I am a sentimentalist and I love my family but rationally I know that they are no more alive than people on the other side of the world, they only have greater value to me personally and it is selfish of me to put a greater value on the life of a family member or a loved one than on someone's life I have never met before who is living on the other side of the world.

You want to help, get along and succeed.

The defining principals are those values you grew up with and I don't consider anything Dimbo has to say valid on my view of life or what the country needs.

McSmurk's goals and mine are too different to come to a common conclusion. I like cats and kids for example...he feeds his need to hide from people like us.