Patriotism is love of and/or devotion to one’s country. The word comes from the Greek patris.[1] However, patriotism has had different meanings over time, and its meaning is highly dependent upon context, geography and philosophy.

Nationalism refers to an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation.[1] It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all specialists accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a modern phenomenon originating in Europe.[2] Precisely where and when it emerged is difficult to determine, but its development is closely related to that of the modern state and the push for popular sovereignty that came to a head with the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Since that time, nationalism has become one of the most significant political and social forces in history, perhaps most notably as a major influence or cause of World War I and especially World War II with the rise of fascism, a radical and authoritarian nationalist ideology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism

I really think that the US focuses more on Jingoism than patriotism – calling it patriotism is a perversion of the word.

(Since tone is hard to read sometimes, I should clarify that this isn’t sarcasm. I really do feel like there’s some flaw in there.)

Other than that, though, I absolutely agree with every other sentence you just said! Only, I draw a different conclusion about patriotism’s utility as a means to achieve that positive motivation you mention. It’s undeniably a motivational force, but in the long run it fosters a home-country-centric viewpoint of the world, and self-censorship of any ideas which might not work to the strategic advantage of the home country.

An example: The fact that, even now, mainstream U.S. progressives like Matthew Yglesias discuss Iraq in terms of American strategic success or failure (currently the emotion seems to be success), rather than as as an illegal occupation which has killed more people than it is humanly even possible to fathom. This situation, obviously, is not good for America, nor for the world.

In other words: patriotism says, “What’s best for America is best for the world.” What I’m suggesting is, “What’s best for the people of the world is best for America”. Is there a word for that concept?

I guess, for me, if one starts celebrating reasons why something is “great”, the automatic implicit assumption that results is that most other things like it are not so great. When America continues to be responsible for thousands, millions of murders in other countries in pursuit of its own goals, I feel like celebration of our great ideals is the wrong approach. Humility and circumspection should be in order. If our ideals are really so great, then the fact that we are in fact pursuing the opposite course with our actions in so many ways means, well, we don’t get to throw ourselves a party celebrating our ideals until we earn the privilege by living up to them a little bit more.

“Patriotism” is never going to convince me to fight a war, or kill someone, or kick someone out, but it might convince me to stay abreast of politics, learn our history (our REAL history, warts and all) and do the best to live up to our ideals.

I am really, really okay with that. It makes sense. And I’m not going to argue with canadians or anybody else because they think their country is the best. They like Canadia or wherever they live for the same reasons that I like where I live: namely, it’s where I live. Home field advantage counts for quite a bit, and I know the people and the culture here well enough to be comfortable just about anywhere in this country. I’ve lived in the midwest long enough to actually get along quite well here and understand many of the nuances of the local culture, slang and euphemisms.

The point is, Patriotism is okay so long as we make the leap to understand why we are patriotic and why other people are too. Realistically, I don’t trust stupid fucking humanity to do so. (God I hope the south rises again, I’d vote to let them go, and they can take Texas with them). But I don’t think national pride is a bad thing, and I especially appreciate a holiday celebrating vital events in our national history, like when we started signing one of the most significant documents in human history.

I like America. I REALLY like what we COULD be, and I hope that we’ll see that as a nation and strive for that, going back to our roots for concepts like equality and justice and what’s fair and right. Like so many aliens in so many scifi series have said, we’ve got Great Potential, and I for one am proud of that. It’s just, I have the sense to not project my attitudes about my particular country onto others, only the generic reasons.

TRH

I have strong doubts that patriotism is something to be celebrated in any form. Every frigging country out there is full of folks who believe, deep down, that while their country may have problems, the fact is, their people are the best. I’ve met them in every country I’ve visited so far. Most of these countries have officially approved origin stories glorifying the uniquely brave and wise heroes who founded them, and celebrated documents full of inspirational language which the nations in question have only ever sometimes lived up to. I’m not entirely sure here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if America was currently the most insufferable in this regard. Either way, I think patriotism is a fundamentally harmful, tribal concept– perhaps one that all humans are prone to indulge in, but nonetheless, that doesn’t mean it’s good for us.

Actually, patriotism and religion are very similar in my mind. They both have advantages, in that they give us an instant feeling of community with a certain subset of the people around us, and they give us reassuring, easy answers. There is moral certitude and strength in numbers. But if we actually buy into either of them as much as their adherents claim we should, we end up shutting our brains off and refusing to listen to other points of view which just might be more moral, enriching, or conducive to survival.

Now, the Declaration of Independence is indeed an extraordinary document. It’s nice to see a country with a founding document that recognizes the fact that government rules by the consent of the governed. Trouble is, when Jefferson et al wrote “all men are created equal”, they neglected to define, precisely, what a “man” is. And so our country was founded on the backs of slaves working land plundered from the natives. And this oppression was, yes, justified by the claims that the oppressed were not full men.

It’s true that in the forward march of history, the general trend since then has been to gradually extend the rights of full manhood to various groups which had not been considered such before. But this has been the case in richer countries all over the world. Slavery (at least in name) was abolished in Britain a good three decades before the Americans did so (at least in name)– and the Brits did it without the benefit of any Founding Fathers guiding the way.

I am not meaning to suggest that 19th century Brits were better than their American counterparts. Rather that fundamentally, we are not Americans, or British, or Japanese, but just human. Patriotism is comforting the same way that cheering for your hometown team is comforting. Really celebrating July 4th the way that it’s meant to be celebrated means choosing to believe that America, as an institution, is somehow exceptional. I’m not sure this is the case. It’s just the place we Americans know the best. We know how great we can be. So we tend to end up thinking, “how could anywhere else ever really be as good as we are?”

(Don’t worry, there’s loads of people in every country out there thinking that same flawed thought right now!)

Allegedly King George the Third’s diary entry on July 4, 1776. I really have no idea whether or not this is true, but I always enjoy the mild humor of the situation, that he happened to put exactly that (and even bothered to write it down) on THAT day.

The Roman Republic lasted just under 500 years, before it was weakened by civil wars to the point of allowing one person to seize power and morphed into the Roman Empire. I wonder if we can hold out for the better part of three more centuries?

@violet: if you’re going to mention taxes, I don’t think you can go without the appropriate hat-nodding to everybody’s favorite old man. “‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Great Britian @USA OMGWTFBBQ?

TRH