Patriotism Edit Meaning

1.

In theory:

Patriotism is a feeling of pride and love for one's country. Common acts of patriotism include erecting a flag of one's country in the home or yard, decorating one's car with as many flags as possible, and singing national tunes!

Criticism:

However, a deeper look into the "patriotic" mentality reveals something more complex and disturbing then the aforementioned phenomena. Why should anyone feel the need to exalt his own country over another? What is so special about his country that makes it so that he is "proud to be a (insert random nationality here)"? And what exactly is he proud of? Is patriotism being proud of one's heritage? If this is the case, then there should be no need to masquerade symbols of pride, for that is just arrogance! It is analogous to a situation where a man is very proud of his personal accomplishments. The man constantly walks around singing about his accomplishments, wearing clothing representing his accomplishments, and even writing books about his accomplishments! Is this not arrogance? Is this necessary? Rather, the man should be inwardly happy about his personal accomplishments, but should carry on with his business without boasting. Just as, in any country, a person should not become "patriotic," but should rather hold an inward respect for his country, equal to his respect for other countries. Because aren't all men created equal? And accordingly, culture, a creation of man, and religion, though somewhat more dubiously, a creation of man, are all equal. And there is no need for the exaltation of any particular nationality in any way, shape, or form.

In reality:

Patriotism is perhaps THE single most effective political tool (though arguably less than religion). This concept of patriotism, of being proud of one's country, is used to control and condition the opinions of the general masses. For just one example of many, consider this:

Sympathizing with a little Iraqi child whose entire family was killed during the US invasion is unpatriotic. And if not unpatriotic, it is at least unimportant compared to the death of a US soldier, because God knows that American lives are more important than any other life!

Politicians will use patriotism to breed resentment to other races and nationalities, and to justify certain actions that otherwise would not be tolerated. It is important to understand that patriotism is also frequently used to "bind" a person to his country, and in doing so, stifle dissent, and make it generally unacceptable. Basically patriotism is a tool to make the general populace have a single opinion that is supplementary to the actions (or future actions) of the politicans in power at the time.

Let's be individuals! Let's not be sheep to be herded by the shephard that is "patriotism"!

2.

The belief that your country is better than everyone elses because you were born there.

Person from Iraq: I have patriotism, go Iraq, fuck America!

Person from America: God bless America, nuke em!

See patriot, nationalist, nationalism, bigotry

3.

1. By true definition, the idea of caring enough about your country to criticize it.

2. Caring enough about one's country to be outraged at the utter violation of civil rights perpetrated by the government.

3. A concept used by right-wing fundamentalists to justify their egregious civil liberties violations and war-mongering nature.

The only true patriots are the liberals who CARE about the people in this country.

4.

I love my country, but I fear my government.

Pat-RIOT-ism

5.

The excuse used by Hitlerto effectively turn democracy in Germany to a dictatorship after he took office in 1933. Hitler removed all other political parties except his own just months after taking his oath of office. Under the cover of patriotism he attacked the German constitution and managed to instigate a book burning of authors regarded as "enemies", banned foreign radio stations, replaced acedemic textbooks with materials promoting Nazi ideologies, passing the Civil Service Act which required teachers to adhere to the new ideologies, passed the Nuremberg Laws which decreed Jews as subjects of the Germans and much more.

Patriotism facilitated the unprovoked German attack on Holland.

6.

The act of driving to the Ikeain your Hyundizzaywith an American flag sticker (Made in Taiwan) on the back while many Americans are collecting unemployment and foreigners are attending flight school in sunny Florida.

Show your patriotism by learning the English language first then we'll talk.

See 50 cent crack dealer

7.

Patriotism, believe it or not, has a Latin stem word, and a Greek suffix. The stem word being "patria", meaning "land of one's fathers" or "fatherland" and the greek suffix "-ism" meaning "the act of" or "state of".

To put these two stems together would equal "the act of... land of one's fathers". Obviously we need to fill in the blank. As you can read above people have many different choices as to what goes into that blank(criticising, disagreeing with).

However, plainly stated, the definition of Patriotism is not up for discussion. and the word that goes into that blank is "love" or "devotion". A strong statement I know, but true. Please do not assume because I use strong words like love and devotion I am trying to conotate this definition, they are simply words, with definitions of their own, that are in the definition of the word patriotism.

Patriotism: n. - the act of loving or showing devotion to one's country.

Let's face it, patriotism is not a political stance or a veiw point. It's an emotion. Just like all emotions, how you choose to display them to the world is entirely up to you.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

- Voltaire