quotation du jour: patriotism
"There is a false love of country, born of pride, which blinds one to her faults; and there is a loftier passion which will brave estrangement and denunciation to correct them."~ G. A. Chadwick, The Book of Exodus, part of The Expositor's Bible series, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll, page 38
As a bit of background, I came across this as I was doing some proofreading in my newest form of procrastination through alternative productivity. Many thanks to aMike for the discovery!
I think that "the left" understands these two types of patriotism -- that criticism is not the same as hatred but rather can be motivated by love. It's this difference that is so often elided by the rhetoric of "support the troops."
Apologies for any formatting issues; the text editor is having a personality moment.
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I love this ... and it couldn't have arrived at a more needed time. It's Memorial Weekend, a holiday to commemorate the dead -- and especially those who died for that "false love of country, born of pride, which blinds one to her faults."
Please take a moment this weekend to think about all who have made the ultimate sacrifice out of love of this country. And I ask that you look into your heart for the courage to make their death meaningful here at home.
It's the burden of we, the living, who must bear "a loftier passion which will brave estrangement and denunciation to correct them."
Find the courage to do what is right. We owe it to them.
Debra Morgan Pardee
"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." -- George Bernard Shaw
May 25, 2007 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
- - Samuel Johnson
"In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first."
- - Ambrose Bierce, "Devil’s Dictionary"
"The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war."
- - Sydney J. Harris, "Purely Personal Prejudices"
May 26, 2007 4:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Late, Great, Mr. Vonnegut. My kind of patriot:
"Thank God George Bush is our president." -Rudy Giuliani
May 26, 2007 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink