For Memorial Day: on nationalism and patriotism
The story “The Man Without a Country” used to be standard reading matter for seventh graders. In fact, it was the first “real” book—as opposed to those tedious Dick and Jane readers—that I was assigned in school.
It was exciting compared to Dick and Jane and the rest, since it dealt with an actual story with some actual drama to it. It struck me as terribly sad—and unfair, too—that Philip Nolan was forced to wander the world, exiled, for one moment of cursing the United States. “The Man Without a Country” was the sort of paean to patriotism that I would guess is rarely or never assigned nowadays to students.
Patriotism has gotten a bad name during the last few decades. I think part of this feeling began (at least in this country) with the Vietnam era and the influence of the left. But patriotism and nationalism seem to have been rejected by a large segment of Europeans even earlier, as a result of the devastation both sentiments were seen to have wrought on that continent during WWI and WWII. Of course, WWII in Europe was a result mainly of German nationalism run amok, but it seemed to have given nationalism as a whole a very bad name.
Here’s author Thomas Mann on the subject, writing in 1947 in the introduction to the American edition of Herman Hesse’s Demian:
If today, when national individualism lies dying, when no single problem can any longer be solved from a purely national point of view, when everything connected with the “fatherland” has become stifling provincialism and no spirit that does not represent the European tradition as a whole any longer merits consideration…
A strong statement of the post-WWII idea of nationalism as a dangerous force, mercifully dead or dying, to be replaced (hopefully) by a pan-national (or, rather, anational) Europeanism. Mann was a German exile from his own country who had learned to his bitter regret the excesses to which unbridled and amoral nationalism can lead. His was an understandable and common response at the time, one that many decades later helped lead to the formation of the EU. The waning but still relatively strong nationalism of the US is seen by those who agree with him as a relic of those dangerous days of nationalism gone mad without any curb of morality or consideration for others.
But the US is not Nazi Germany or anything like it, however much the far left may try to make that analogy. There’s a place for nationalism, and for love of country. Not a nationalism that ignores or tramples on human rights (like that of the Nazis), but one that embraces and strives for and tries to preserve them here and abroad, keeping in mind that—human nature being what it is—no nation on earth can be perfect or anywhere near perfect. The US is far from perfect, but it is a very good country nevertheless, always working to be better, with a nationalism that recognizes that sometimes liberty must be fought for, and that the struggle involves some sacrifice.
So, I’ll echo the verse that figured so prominently in “The Man Without a Country,” and say (corny, but true): …this is my own, my native land. And I’ll also echo Francis Scott Key and add: …the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
[NOTE: This is a slightly edited version of an older post.]
Nobody loves America better than a person who grew up under fascism and communism. Read this ==> Born American But In the Wrong Place
The Great Shrillary:
1) On patriotism: “if you debate and you disagree with this [Bush] administration, somehow you’re not patriotic.”
2) On sacrifice in war: “Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat.”
After I served in the 101st Airborne (during but not in Vietnam), I willing went along with the anti-patriotism of the cultural revolution. I started to come to my senses during the Reagan administration. I at least refused to vote for his Democrat opponents. Now, I see that humanity will always have warring factions. We need to be vigilant to avoid the excesses of nationalism while using it to defend our tribe’s interests.
It is no accident that we still have troops in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. The people of those countries have benefited greatly from the sacrifices of the American military.
snopercod:
That’s a great article by Schramm. Thanks.
There was a real Philip Nolan, too.
Whole story here at Chicagoboyz: http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/48462.html
Oh – yes, second the Shramm article. He seems to have been at CSU – Northridge shortly before I was. Small world …
Fine link indeed snopercod.
It is the Ying/Yang of it all. You can’t appreciate it if you haven’t tasted the other side.
Here, the natives eyes a likely glazing over when he tells them ….
“[T]he US is not Nazi Germany or anything like it, however much the far left may try to make that analogy.”
Actually, it is the far left has become fascist.
God bless America. But America is her people as well as her ideals. What (to borrow from Michelle) if for the first time in your adult life you are ashamed of your country? Ashamed that we have fallen so far. That our leaders have betrayed us, that we are so apathetic, that we are so willing to throw away our freedom.
Opposition to patriotism tends to be opportunistic. Soviet nationalism was often celebrated by people who opposed American nationalism. The claim that Soviet nationalism was different, something universal, was rather silly. Yet many seem to have fallen for it.
The idea that American values are universal is equally silly, but that is no reason not to celebrate them. They have served us well.
Peter Schramm’s story is wonderful.
I’ve heard that description of us before, that we seem taller, freer and more easy-going, more confident than other nationalities.
Oh, how I wish that our congress critters and other pols would make the case for the American Way, for Freedom, for Dignity.
Freedom most of all, the foundation of all the rest.
The love to one’s own tribe is so deeply ingrained in human psyche that even the terrible experience of European wars cannot supress this emotion or purge it from public discourse anymore, even in Europe. We will see a ressurection of European nationalism in near future, and nobody knows how far this movement can go, up to complete dismantling of EU or unnatural European “nations” such as Belgium. Great Britain and Spain are already under treat of coming apart as Scottland and Catalonia are demanding national souverenity in referenda.
European nationalism is already resurging. They’ve been exiled to the fringes of their own society, but their ability to live is still sustainable.
As linked to from Power Line:
http://www.startribune.com/memorial-day-look-back-eagle-photo-touches-hearts/127347018/
Patriotism is simple love of country. This is the default position, like loving your family and parents. Anyone who does not love their country is a hideous creature.
Only those who truly love their country can even transform it, and make it better.
Obama hates his country. Liberals hate America. This is the main reason every liberal, and therefore the majority of democrats, are hideous creatures who never make anything better, and never will.
They destroy, tear down, and transform for the worst only.