What Is Patriotism?

When I could finally face my e-mail today, I had one from The Nation posing these questions: "Is there a patriotism that is not nationalistic? How does internationalism relate to patriotism? What do you value in the traditions of your country?" These are questions the magazine asked fourteen years ago of a group of activists, writers and politicians. They were published in a special edition in July 1991. As the editors say, the answers are still relevant today.

This forum, with short essays (very short, in some cases!) by Vivian Gornick, Jesse Jackson, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Martin Duberman, Floyd Abrams, Richard Falk, Howard Fast, Mary McGrory and Natalie Merchant, among many others, has the Right Stuff to shore up our spirits today, this anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in a time when patriotism may be a confused and confusing issue. I love this country, but my love falls into what John Schaar in his introductory piece to the question "What is Patriotism?" calls the "other camp of patriots," the one "which does not march to military time. It prefers the gentle strains of 'America the Beautiful' to the strident cadences of 'Hail to the Chief' and 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.' " Schaar's piece particularly resonates with me:

Nietzsche wrote that words with a history cannot be defined. Their meanings are in their stories, their biographies. That is surely the case with "patriotism." Patriotism is as patriots have done. And in relatively recent times--say, since the American and French revolutions--those who have called themselves patriots or who have called others to the banner of patriotism have largely fallen into two camps.

The first company, whose signature is on so many of the bloodiest pages of the modern age, has its spiritual roots in the radical ideologies of the French Revolution. They announced the advent of a new god on earth and a new prophet/commander whose voice was the voice of that god. The new god, of course, was la patrie, the nation, and the new commander was the state.

Abbe Sieyes named the new god: "The nation exists before all. It is the origin of everything. It is the law itself." By 1792, in a petition addressed to the National Assembly, the ferociously jealous claims of the of the new god were made chillingly clear: "The image of the patrie is the sole divinity which it is permitted to worship."

Those claims have echoed in a thousand variations from that day to this. It is the worship of national power, of national greatness, nearly always expressed as power over other peoples and qualities, and as power that acknowledges no limits on its own assertion. This voice has been as clamorous and continuous in our own country as in many others. The line from Col. Alexander Hamilton to Lieut. Col. Oliver North is strong and pure.

The other company of patriots does not march to military time. It prefers the gentle strains of "America the Beautiful" to the strident cadences of "Hail to the Chief" and "The Stars and Stripes Forever." This patriotism is rooted in the love of one's own land and people, love too of the best ideals of one's own culture and tradition. This company of patriots finds no glory in puffing their country up by pulling others' down. This patriotism is profoundly municipal, even domestic. Its pleasures are quiet, its services steady and unpretentious.

This patriotism too has deep roots and long continuity in our history. Its voice is often temporarily shouted down by the battle cries of the first company, but it has never been stilled. Jefferson spoke for it, as did Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.

We should not be surprised if this voice is often heard lamenting or rebuking the country's failures to live up to its own best ideals, which have always been the ideals of the fullest possible freedom and the most nearly equal justice for all. Its specifically political ideal found its finest expression in Lincoln's "government of, by and for the people," and the American domestic patriot is often heard calling fellow citizens and their officials to this standard. That call is distinctly a citizenly call, and never more so than when, as Father Mapple's wonderful sermon in Moby-Dick has it, the citizen stands firm "against the proud gods and commodores of this earth" and calls every violation of the covenant to account "though he pluck it out from under the robes of Senators and Judges."

The line only went as far as Oliver North when this was written, today clearly it extends to many of the current administration, and at least one of our generals, who have conflated the Christian God, the nation and the state into one indistinguishable object of worship, and patriotism is the worship of that object. Here is the link to the entire forum.

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