This is probably not a good morning for me to comment upon the subject, as I'm tired and cranky from putting up with all my fellow American patriots setting off illegal fireworks all night, setting up a wild goose chase w/cops (and their sirens) throughout the neighborhood, numerous fire calls w/many fire trucks (and sirens), etc. Ah, the suburbs.

My definition of patriotism is that it is the nationalist equivalent of racism or ethnic or religious bigotry.

Knowing how extreme that would sound to the (obviously) patriotic people who post here, I wandered over to Wikipedia. The entry on patriotism starts out badly. Talks about love and affection for the "fatherland". Not in my world, thanks.

So I was relieved to read a bit further down under "Ethics of Patriotism", other contributions I could embrace as a view I share.

This is what patriotism means to me, from the Wiki article "Patriotism":

"The primary implication of patriotism in ethical theory is that a person has more moral duties to fellow members of the national community, than to non-members. Patriotism is selective in its altruism. Criticism of patriotism in ethics is mainly directed at this moral preference: Paul Gomberg compared it to racism.[2] The view (in ethics) that moral duties apply equally to all humans is known as cosmopolitanism. (In practice, many patriots would see treason rather than cosmopolitanism as the "opposite of patriotism".)"