Here is what the great thinkers thought about patriotism...

[TruthIsAll]

Maybe its time for another paradigm.

Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Leo Tolstoy: "Patriotism ... for rulers is nothing else than a tool for achieving their power-hungry and money-hungry goals, and for the ruled it means renouncing their human dignity, reason, conscience, and slavish submission to those in power. ... Patriotism is slavery."

Emma Goldman: "Leo Tolstoy <...> defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers". Three years later, in Patriotism: a menace to liberty, she wrote "conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. <...> Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others."

George Bernard Shaw: "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."

Mark Twain: "The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice — and always has been."

[drumwolf]

1. "Great thinkers"? You mean INTELLECTUALS?

This just goes to show what we Freepers have always known, that people with intellect are unpatriotic. We don't like any IN-TEL-LECK-CHOOWULS telling us how to think.

;-)

[Solon]

2. I'm no patriot, never have been never will be...

Love those quotes.

[Imalittleteapot]

3. Patriots should be comforted knowing that

a large part of the population has not been sucked into their convictions - giving hope to mankind.

[tabasco]

4. It depends on your definition of patriotism.

"Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest," but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is."

- Sydney J. Harris

*I like to think I am a patriot under this definition*


"Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let me label you as they may."

"The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."

- Mark Twain

There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity, hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.

The other vision finds its roots in the spirit of our founding revolution and in the leaders of this nation who embraced the age of reason. It loves freedom, encourages diversity, embraces science and affirms the dignity and rights of every individual. It sees America as a moral nation, neither completely religious nor completely secular. It defines patriotism as love of country and of the people who make it strong. It defends all citizens against unjust coercion and irrational conformity.

This second vision is our vision. It is the vision of a free society. We must be bold enough to proclaim it and strong enough to defend it against all its enemies.

- Rabbi Sherwin Wine


I love America and I am proud of our achievements. If that means I am condemned by great thinkers - so be it. I am not willing to concede that the American experiment has failed. I believe we can fight to make this a good and just Nation, and a helpful and honest neighbor in the community of nations.

[Northwind]

5. You forgot a big one

"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." ~ Oscar Wilde