Patriotism

Patriotism denotes positive attitudes by a person to their own nation, to its national homeland, its culture, its members, and to its interests. The word is derived from the Latin patria, fatherland, which has a much broader meaning than a geographical territory.

The ethics of patriotism

Patriotism is an essentially emotional support for the nation, the fatherland. It is not intended to have a rational foundation: soldiers do not fight for a country because it produces more cement than the enemy, but because it is their country. Their patriotism pre-supposes its existence ? but not everyone agrees with that. Some Islamists, for instance, reject the legitimacy of the nation-state as such, and despise patriotism as un-Islamic. The loyalty of the Muslim, they say, can only be to the Ummah, the community of all Muslims. In the European Union, patriotism usually coincides with Euroscepticism, and may therefore be rejected on pro-European grounds. Obviously, if you oppose the very existence of nation-states and nations, then there is no reason to value a positive attitude to the nation. For the nationalist, patriotism is a virtue, but that judgment is made within the ethical framework of nationalist beliefs about the value of nations themselves.

Related Topics:
Islamists - Ummah - European Union - Euroscepticism - Nation - Virtue

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Among those who support the nation-state, there are often disagreements about specific patriotisms. In some countries patriotism, and especially national pride, is disputed, because a minority feels there is no reason to be proud. The Australian political conflict about Black armband history is a classic example. It concentrates on the suffering of the Australian aborigines during the British colonisation of Australia. Conservative Prime Minister John Howard, who would undoubtedly describe himself as an Australian patriot, said of it in 1996:

Related Topics:
Australian - Black armband history - Australian aborigines - John Howard

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The 'black armband' view of our history reflects a belief that most Australian history since 1788 has been little more than a disgraceful story of imperialism, exploitation, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination.

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In the United States, explicitly patriotic history has been consistently criticised for its de-emphasising the post-Colombian depopulation, the Atlantic slave trade, the population expulsions and the wars of conquest against Native Americans.

Related Topics:
Depopulation - Atlantic slave trade - Population expulsions - Wars of conquest - Native Americans

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One of the main problems with treating patriotism as a virtue, is that specific patriotisms conflict. The near-hopeless defence of the Netherlands against the May 1940 invasion by Nazi Germany provided an example of military patriotism - Dutch soldiers giving their lives to defend their country. Yet many of the invading Nazi soldiers doubtless felt, too, that they were engaged in a patriotic act, in this case on behalf of the German nation. Many of them had been indoctrinated in a form of unquestioning patriotism during their teenage years, while they were members of the Hitler Youth. It is now generally accepted, even in Germany, that the invasion had no justification, and to the extent that patriotism facilitated it, then patriotism could not be considered a virtue. Throughout history, governments have invoked patriotic feelings to support military aggression, arbitrary imprisonment of aliens, and even murder, acts considered evil by most individuals.

Related Topics:
Virtue - Netherlands - May 1940 invasion - Nazi Germany - German - Hitler Youth

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Even if battlefield self-sacrifice is considered virtuous, it can be difficult to determine whether a particular act is admirable for its ??patriotism??. Self-sacrifice is inevitable on the battlefield, the question is how much it is inspired by patriotic emotions. We can ask whether any particular self-sacrificing Dutch soldier acted out of devotion to the Dutch national state in 1940. Some certainly fought because they hated Fascism, and many soldiers fight because they do not want to appear to be cowards. In other words, there is a distinction between a non-egoistic act which benefits the nation, and one that is specifically motivated by patriotic feelings. We can imagine two soldiers, equally brave and self-sacrificing. The first soldier is motivated by a patriotic preference for his country's independence. The second cares nothing for the Dutch nation as such, but has carefully studied Fascism and has a deep commitment to save the world from its perceived evils. Some people, according to their prejudices, might well admire the second soldier more than the first, even though he could be considered the less patriotic of the two.

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Patriotism vs. universal brotherhood

The wartime example of patriots fighting each other, illustrates the point that even self-sacrificing patriotism is selective in its altruism. Patriotism implies that nationals - members of a nation - owe a greater allegiance to fellow nationals than to foreigners. This selectivity is the most ethically controversial aspect of patriotism. Many people have promoted the alternative concept of a universal human community, as expressed for instance in the idealistic phrase "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" ("all people become brothers") of the Ode to Joy, part of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The 'Ode to Joy' is the official anthem of the European Union and the phrase is regarded with deep distrust by many nationalists in Europe.

Related Topics:
Altruism - Ode to Joy - Beethoven - Ninth Symphony - European Union

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All nation-states favour their own nationals above non-nationals. Immigration law is based on that principle: merely by accident of birth in a country, some people have an automatic entitlement to live in it, but foreigners do not. Patriotism seems to ethically condone these distinctions. For this reason it has often been compared to racism, most notably in a 2002 paper by Paul Gompert, Patriotism is like racism.

Related Topics:
Nation-state - Immigration - Racism

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In his influential article "Is patriotism a virtue?" (1984), the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre notes that most contemporary conceptions of morality insist on a kind of impartial blindness to accidental traits like national origin in the just treatment of our fellow humans - and therefore, that patriotism is inevitably not moral under these conceptions. MacIntyre goes on, however, to construct a sophisticated alternative conception of morality that would be compatible with patriotism.

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Patriotism for other countries?

History includes many cases of individuals who acted with impassioned selflessness on behalf of countries not their own. For example, the Marquis de Lafayette was a Frenchman who fought for the independence of the thirteen British colonies in America. The "Philhellenes," western Europeans who fought in the Greek War of Independence, are another example; as are the Americans who fought on the Allied side before the entry of their country into the First World War. Such cases call into question what we mean by "patriotism": for instance, was Lafayette an American patriot, or the Philhellenes Greek patriots?

Related Topics:
Marquis de Lafayette - Greek War of Independence - First World War

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Alasdair MacIntyre would claim that they were not; that these and similar cases are instances of idealism, but not of patriotism. Under this view, Lafayette was only devoted to the ideals of political liberty that underlay the American Revolution, but was not specifically patriotic for America. For MacIntyre, patriotism by definition can only be a preference for one's own country, not a preference for the ideals that a country is believed to stand for.

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The opposite view is also widely held: for instance, many Americans who profess to be patriots would claim that their patriotism is not an arbitrary preference for America, but is rather is based on special virtues (for instance, "freedom"), that are specially, perhaps uniquely, possessed by America. Presumably, for such individuals, it would be quite coherent to claim that Lafayette was an American patriot, since he fought on behalf of (what are held to be) American virtues.

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Patriotism and democracy

Politicians often appeal to patriotic emotions in attacking their opponents, implicitly or explicitly accusing them of betraying the nation. In the view of many, the nature of these comments harm political discussion and provide less opportunity for deliberative democracy to flourish, because it appeals only to a visceral negative emotion (mistrust and angry patriotism), rather than to voters? reasoned views on policy. In some democracies, the claimed treason of the political elite became a central issue, notably in Germany itself. Adolf Hitler condemned the democratic politicians who approved the November 1918 armistice (which ended the First World War) as the ?November criminals?.

Related Topics:
Deliberative democracy - Adolf Hitler - First World War - November criminals

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On the other hand, some people suggest that democratic government is a cause of patriotism. For instance, it could be imagined that the military forces of Ancient Greece succeeded in fending off much larger numbers of attacking Persians because ancient Persia was a despotism, whereas many of the Greeks lived in democracies, which gave them a sense of solidarity and hence of patriotism. Similarly, it is often thought that the French Revolution, by freeing the French of the yoke of monarchy, set off a great surge of patriotism that led to the great success of the French armies in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Nevertheless, some states combined tyrannical systems of government with high levels of patriotism, including later Napoleonic France, after Napoleon had made himself emperor.

Related Topics:
Democratic government - Ancient Greece - Persia - Despotism - French Revolution - Monarchy - Napoleon

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Patriotism can also be seen as one of the greatest psychological barriers to civil war because a feeling of nationhood common to all citizens can give democratic politics a legitimacy among the nation, a legitimacy lacking in some states that contain a heterogeneous community.

Related Topics:
Civil war - Heterogeneous

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