On patriotism, part I

A few years ago, the newsletter for a supposedly apolitical and multifaith non-profit organization I belong to, published a copy of that inane email about boycotting French-owned companies due to France's criticism of the nascent Iraq war. When I questioned the writer about the appropriateness of such an article in such a milieu, I got back a vitriolic diatribe about the importance of loyalty and patriotism, clearly meant to suggest that I was lacking in both. Shortly after that, I got blackballed from a subcommittee on the say-so of the writer's husband.

(One possible lesson here is: do not fuck with sweet little old ladies when it comes to their inane email forwards.)

In any case, after that incident I found myself bending over backwards within my organization, again and again, to demonstrate that I was "loyal" and "patriotic" in spite of my progressive politics and opposition to the war.

I arranged for the right songs to be played at our ceremonies and for the flag to be escorted at every event with maximum pomp. I launched a program of community service benefiting the police officers and firefighters in our town. I put on an "All-American" themed fundraiser complete with a red, white and blue menu.

Looking back on it, there are all kinds of problems with my Campaign to Defend My Unfairly Impugned Patriotism. Other than the community service, which wasn't really very substantive either, my actions were limited to empty, even crass symbolism. That's pretty cynical, even for me. Isn't that exactly the sort of mindlessness the inane email forwarders are all about? Absolutely, but it's also what I hate about them. Strike one.

It also didn't work. I'm not a bumper sticker person, but I am all about the sentiments of "peace is patriotic" and "support our troops, bring them home". But nobody on the other side is falling for that stuff. They know perfectly well that those liberal/progressive/commie/peacenik bastards hate America, and no amount of flag-waving is ever going to convince them otherwise. And indeed it hasn't, in my case. Strike two.

But this stuff got me thinking. And re-thinking. And I have to wonder, why is patriotism a virtue anyway? Doesn't Medecins Sans Frontières have the right idea? I value humanity and human dignity. Why should I buy into the idea that arbitrary imaginary lines on maps make any one set of humans superior to any other? How is nationalism OK when white supremacy and patriarchy are so clearly (to me) not? Is this strike three?

I've been thinking about this, so occasionally perhaps I'll post my investigations into the various facets of "patriotism" and their merits.