The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156050   Message #3677933
Posted By: GUEST,Steve Shaw
17-Nov-14 - 08:02 PM
Thread Name: Patriotism
Subject: RE: Patriotism
I seem to recall that God Bless America was the song that so enraged Woody Guthrie that he riposted with This Land Is Your Land, an infinitely superior song.

There is no nation or establishment or monarch or institution or boss that deserves your allegiance as of right. They should have to earn it first, and earning it is the most difficult thing in the world. You were born where you were born by sheer accident. Patriotism is a bit like prayer. If you adhere to your nation, unthinkingly, your thoughts are probably moving in the direction of diminishing nations other than your own. If you pray for some advantage, you are automatically praying for someone else's disadvantage. Hardly surprising, then, that God is so often invoked in patriotic rants (God Bless America, God Save The Queen). Patriotism and God make for good bedfellows. Patriotism leads to xenophobia, sectarianism and racism. Don't love your country above all others until you've sorted it out first!