BS: What makes someone a patriot?

Subject: RE: BS: What makes someone a patriot?
From: Greg F.
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 05:20 PM

HUAC & the Dies committee atrocities preceeded McCarthy by quite a while. Tailgunner Joe just starred in the last act of the whole sordid mess-

until the recent revival per Ashcroft & the BuShites..

Subject: RE: BS: What makes someone a patriot?
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 06:47 PM

mack/misophist: That was G. K. Chesterton, not W. C. Fields.

George Orwell wrote ("Notes on Nationalism", 1945):

Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism..., since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By "patriotism" I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is by its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, _not_ for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his individuality.

Subject: RE: BS: What makes someone a patriot?
From: Metchosin
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 08:25 PM

another view of partriotism:

TO THE CANADIAN PATRIOT
by William Wilfred Campbell

This is the land of the rugged north; these wide
Life-yielding fields, these inland oceans; these
Vast rivers moving seaward their wide floods,
Majestic music; these sky-bound plains
And heaven-topping mountains; these iron shores,
Facing toward either ocean; fit home alone
For the indomitable and nobly strong.
In that dread hour of evil, when thy land
Is rent with strifes and ground with bigotry,
And all looks dark for honour, and poor Truth
Walks cloaked in shadow, alien from her marts;
Go forth alone and view the earth and sky,
And those eternal waters, moving, vast,
In endless duty, ever rendering pure
These mild or angry airs; the gladdening sun
Reviving, changing, weaving life from death,
These elemental uses Nature puts
Her patient hours to; and then thou shalt know
A larger vista, glean a greater truth
Than man has put into his partial creeds
Of blinded feud and custom; thou shalt know
That Nature's laws are greater and more sure,
More calm, more patient, wise and tolerant,
Than these poor, futile efforts of our dream;
That human life is stronger in its yearning
Than those blind walls our impotence builds between
And underneath this calloused rind we see—
As the obedient tides the swaying moon—
A mightier law the whole wide world obeys;
And far behind these mists of human vision
God's great horizon stands out fixed and sure.

Subject: RE: BS: What makes someone a patriot?
From: izzy
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 10:07 PM

My favourite quote on patriotism: "Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a cock crowing on its own dunghill." --Richard Aldington, poet and veteran of WWI.

Subject: RE: BS: What makes someone a patriot?
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 11:18 PM

Patriot-- n. A person who loves, supports, and defends his country.

No mention is made of Government.

Is a mercenary a patriot? Well, I'd have to answer that Government agents are not necessarily patriotic... they are duty bound to policy, rather than patriotic principle...
ttr

Subject: RE: BS: What makes someone a patriot?
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Jul 04 - 11:20 PM

Big ol' No. #3 bumper sticker and half a dozen flag decals works jus' fine fir me...

Bobert