2.8 Patriotism: who's included. who's excluded?
I remember hearing a progressive activist say…
I’m a patriot, too!
This was in response to a right–wing politician who is one of the loudest shouters about patriotism.
It’s like this activist was begging to be included in the club.
But wait a minute! There are two questions we need to ask first…
Whose club is this?
And…
Who decides who’s in and who’s out?
If you’re going to talk to me about patriotism, then I need to know where you draw your boundary, and that boundary issue matters because…
Patriotism is a tribal thing.
It means you’re swearing allegiance. It means you’re pledging loyalty. To people. To a particular group of people. To a tribe of people.
There’s an assemblage of wealthy elites, corporate executives, and right–wing politicians who act like they own patriotism. And get to define it. And get to decide who has the right to call themselves a patriot and who doesn’t.
Which makes sense, because they want to be in charge of everyone and everything.
What they say publicly is…
I love my country.
What they’re thinking but keeping to themselves is this…
I love my country because of what I can get away with. I get to take advantage of people without repercussions. I don’t have to pay my employees a living wage. I know how to work the system. I pay next to nothing in taxes. I get government subsidies for my business. I get to take without giving. Life is good.
What they’re telling the rest of us is essentially…
I want you to be a patriot of the system that runs this country and benefits me. I don’t care if you have to struggle to get through your days. I don’t care if you’re always living scared about tomorrow. I don’t care if you run out of money before the end of the month. That’s your problem not mine. And I like that I don’t have to care.
They draw into their tribe millions of white middle–class and poor people who are attracted by identifying with the tribe’s stand on the superiority of whiteness.
But then they pull a trick. They say…
I love my country and you should love it too. It’s a noble thing to be a patriot. And if you’re not a patriot then you deserve to have bad things happen to you.
They want the rest of us to support their private tribe and be loyal to it, to be patriots of their tribe. But…
They do not want us to be actual members.
Or to be more accurate, they don’t just want us to support them as they hurt us, they want us to submit to them and their rule.
So when anyone praises patriotism I need to know who’s included and who’s not.
Because I believe love of country means wanting a good life for everyone in the country…
Everyone, not just the elite.
And if that’s not your definition, if you’re one of those loud shouters about patriotism, then I want you to define your terms. I want you to say it out loud that you’re a patriot of yourself and people like you…
Not a patriot of the country.
And really, if you loved this country, and even if you were selfish in that love and cared only about this country and no others, then the smart, patriotic thing would be to make sure…
That every person gets an excellent education. Or job training. So we could boost our human capital instead of exploiting it.
And that…
Everyone could make their best contribution to our country. So instead of a relatively small number of people coming up with new ideas and products to ignite new industries and keep us leading the world economically, we’d have magnitudes more innovators.
And that…
Every person would have a good, solid income and so they’ve have the purchasing power to keep money in circulation and the economy humming.
And that…
Every person would have the opportunity to participate in civic organizations and politics and do their best to make our communities better and happier places.
These are the kinds of things that could make a country strong.
Other countries who are our adversaries love it when they see us bitterly divided into warring factions. They love seeing us tear ourselves apart. They love seeing our levels of poverty increase, because poverty weakens an economy.
So, again, if you loved your country not just your tribe, you’d want the best for everyone.
And that would be a big step forward. But not a big enough step, because what we really need is for the great, great majority of people around the world…
To decide to join the tribe of our whole global species.
A trans–tribal tribe.
And then…
Become fierce patriots of humankind.
I’m not holding my breath for any major transformation on this count, but I am going to appreciate the hell out of every even small step of progress we make.
