Patriotism is devotion and loyalty to one’s country. Some say patriotism is the author of all sorts of ills. It easily morphs into its ugly cousin Nationalism, that bully with a superiority complex. By favoring one’s own country over others, patriotism encourages the denigration, hatred or distrust of others, making violations of human rights more acceptable. Too often, patriotism leads to war. As Bertrand Russell said, “patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.”
By favoring a particular place with a particular history, critics of patriotism say it hinders the development of a truly universal and impartial moral code, a set of principles that doesn’t pick favorites but values all people equally. Others deplore the tendency of patriotic fervor to neutralize critical thinking with a kind of knee jerk reactivity that takes offense at supposed slights to the nation’s honor – such as a star athlete refusing to stand for the National Anthem. And without critical thinking, how can we hope to make America – and the world – a better place?
What purpose does patriotism serve anyway? Steve Gillman echoes the sentiments of many who think we can do without patriotism: “We don’t need to be patriotic to defend common values or the spaces we share. People will defend themselves, their families, and their homes with or without patriotic feelings. So what evidence is there for enough good effects of patriotism to balance the harm done by it?”
Others would argue that this stinging rebuke of patriotism is wrongheaded, based on unwarranted assumptions about the nature of the beast. The loyalty of patriotism is like the loyalty to one’s family: “being there” for one’s troublesome brother doesn’t mean one is blind to his faults or doesn’t try to help him become a better person. But it may mean when he winds up in a ditch, you’ll take him home. And if someone calls him a worthless piece of garbage, your impulse will be to defend him.
Patriotism has no necessary relation to notions of superiority or rigid adherence to tradition. Nor does valuing patriotism make it an absolute good that trumps all other moral principles.
One can be devoted to one’s family and not feel it is better than all other families. One can be loyal to a brother but not be willing to enable his bad behavior.
People all over the world are patriotic, from the Thais (most patriotic in the world!) to the rather unwarlike Swiss (where greater patriotism is correlated with greater acceptance of immigrants). Patriotism is so widespread because it offers something of value to people: allegiance to a particular community with whom one shares a place and a history (even if that history is yet to come), through which one becomes capable of morality through the exercise of a mutual regard that has nothing to do with expectation of benefit or a common ideology. The core sentiment is: We are in this together, here.
So I’m of two minds on patriotism. Patriotism is easy to attack – harder to defend. Which has no bearing on its virtues, or lack thereof.