Patriotism Is Bad for You

A quote from The Times, 1 February 2008

Patriotism should be avoided in school lessons because British history is “morally ambiguous”, a leading educational body recommends. […]

Dr Hand, the co-author of the report, said: “Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both called for a history curriculum that fosters attachment and loyalty to Britain, but the case for promoting patriotism in schools is weak.

“Are countries really appropriate objects of love? Loving things can be bad for us, for example when the things we love are morally corrupt. Since all national histories are at best morally ambiguous, it’s an open question whether citizens should love their countries.”

God save Britain

I would like to say that this is unbelievable, but it is not. Leftists are bringing about the death of the Anglosphere, as well as the rest of the Western World. The British Empire was one of the greatest forces for good in the history of the human race. The world would be a far darker place were it not for Great Britain and many of her former colonies. I am very proud of and thankful for my British inheritence. Unfortunately there are many people in Britain who are not.

@ onecent

"What is your point? No offense but smoe time spent at wikipedia or google would serve you well".

 

Onecent,kappert is a teacher!

@kappert

"Wasn't it patriotism which let to WWs?"

 

Only in as much as it was patriotism that ended both wars. Both WW's had more complicated origins than "patriotism", an inadequate term at best, economics played a major role as it does in most historic conflicts.

 

Oh, and Kappert, the British empire, like all of the European colonial empires was economically motivated and far pre-dated communism and socialism. 

 

What is your point?  No offense but some time spent at wikipedia or google would serve you well.

Patriotism is *good*

Patriotism and nationalism are good feeling. They mean "I'll take care of my country, which I care for, and leave you to take care of yours."

 

 

to take care

How can a feeling take care of a country? As far as I know, some banks, industries and politicians are 'taking care' of the countries, including 'your's'. I'm taking care of my garden.

fossils

Nationalism and Patriotism are fossils from the 19th century, which have led to two World Wars. If people are eager to promote patriotism, we will soon have a quilt like the Balkans.

@kappert, again

"Nationalism and Patriotism are fossils from the 19th century....."

Sorry, sweetie, but, Americans aren't Mexicans, Swedes aren't Russians, and Chinese aren't Japanese.....we all have our unique culture, language and history, which brings us to why borders exist. Borders contain those things much to the comfort and enrichment of people who care to be grouped together. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with the patriotism felt by a group within their self-defined border. That's why the unlawful act of violating our borders by illegal Mexicans makes people angry here. This lame disconnected one world-no borders-no pariotism scenerio of yours is, well, lame and undesirable to the vast majority of humans.

Perhaps you are unaware that the Balkans at one time an artificial construct not of their liking changed that more to their liking.

artificial

So you put people within borders in order to feel free. That's an artistic thought. Above all, the border is 'self-defined'. Anything outside this border is potentially illegal and a threat. Regions where different ethnics are mixed up are an 'artificial construct'. So, the whole U.S. is an 'artificial construct', probably the whole world, and only nationalism/patriotism can clean our heads.

@ kappert

Nationalism and patriotism are programmed in the human being as "nest-feelings" and as such as natural as family-feelings. It is the protection of the group.
If you want to destroy that, be my guest, they already destroyed the family, now the nation... on the road to utter chaos and anarchy. Btw it's not new at all, it has been tried all through history, without succes. Everytime chaos becomes too much, people fall back on their old patterns which protected them through history.

wishful think

Associating 'nest-feelings' with patriotism seems to be a 'hide-in-your-shell' postulate. Why is it that patriotism tries to differentiate between people instead searching common bases. Families have nothing to do with the statehood, non-patriots have also families, don't they? 'Chaos and anarchy'? Wasn't it patriotism which let to WWs?

@ kappert

Nationalism and patriotism are innocent victims of the imperialist state dictatorship of communism and nazism which are both close cousins of socialism. The left knows this dangerous closeness and has therefore started the myth that it was not state-socialism which started the war but nationalism.
Nationalism and patriotism are both defensive in attitude and not imperialist like communism and socialism which continue trying and very much succeeding to rule the world, while pointing the finger at those "bad nationalists and patriots".

@traveller

"Nationalism and patriotism are both defensive in attitude and not imperialist like communism and socialism ..."
Could you relate this case with the British Empire? Was it communism or socialism which drove England to imperialism?

@ kappert

No, it was old fashioned robber mercantilism by the different commercial colonial enterprises like the East India Company, Swire, Jardine Matheson, the companies of Cecil Rhodes like "De Beers" etc. etc.
And when they had problems they called for help from the British government, which is exactly what happened in India. Nothing to do with nationalism or patriotism but everything with financial greed and robbery.

Careful now...

"we should hate our countries... we should despise everything our ancestors fought for..."

Wasn't that exactly what the fascists did? Throw out the old, declare 'CHANGE!', and villify anyone who disagrees.

Sometimes I think BJ sinks too far into sarcasm. But maybe I'm too conservative :) 

The British government now only hates its own people.

England is now welcoming anyone who can disrupt the culture.  The EU, Muslums with multiple wives.  And they are willing ot give welfare payments to them at the same time. 

Anyone who stands up Against the government will be branded as mentally deficient.

In Reply to onecent RE: "The Brits are goners"

onecent: The Brits are goners. If that event happened in the US and a major online paper carried that story, the comments would be in the hundreds. 17 out of 35 comments were from non-Brits, mostly Americans. Either British readers agreed or sat their with mouths nailed shut like sheep or perhaps their politeness, the same politeness that is killing them, muzzled a response.

 

The British public is now quite used to the regular issuing of similar reports from a variety of public agencies and NGOs. The important fact is that the various constituent nations of the United Kingdom have little state-centric or grassroots ability to enshrine their national histories legally or socially.

 
onecent: It's hard as an American to fathom the European mind. I'm just glad that religion, a sense of national pride, free speech and a robust political dialogue - all of the things that Europeans loath about us -  are still alive here.

 

Europeans do not "loathe" American patriotism nor their individual liberties, although American fundamentalist Christians and their influence on public policy is worrisome to them. However, it must be noted that these fundamentalist Christians are often Protestant, and their respective denominations are largely foreign to even European Protestants. Of course, if American and European religiousity were identical, the Puritans never would have left Europe.

 

However, the contrast between America "on paper" and the "real" America is marked. Firstly, American national cohesion is being undermined by demographic changes that threaten to transform the country into one that resembles Brasil, and shares its regional and ethno-racial cleavages. Secondly, despite legal-rational protection, free speech and the American political discourse are being overrun by social norms that emerged from the Civil Rights era.

 

On the one hand, American legislation concerning alcohol consumption and nudity is ultra-conservative in comparison to Europe. On the other hand, White supremacists can freely march with swastika armbands without fear of anything other than JDL counter-demonstrations. And yet, public figures suffer real penalties for issuing remarks deemed anti-Semitic, racist or homophobic.

In Reply to Dr. Hand

Dr. Hand: Are countries really appropriate objects of love? Loving things can be bad for us, for example when the things we love are morally corrupt. Since all national histories are at best morally ambiguous, it’s an open question whether citizens should love their countries.
 
According to popular discourse throughout the ages, human love itself is morally ambiguous as it can be "bad" and "morally corrupt" e.g. premarital and extramarital sexual relations, as well as those that contravene the prevailing religious, socio-economic and political doctrines.
 
Clearly, the good doctor is imposing his personal conception of the "bad" and the "morally corrupt" on the British public policy discourse. Unfortunately, Dr. Hand has not enlightened us as to the particular code or doctrine that is influencing his opinions, which would include conceptions of the good and of moral integrity, and which could be subject to full and fair debate before accepting his conclusions.
 
Love of one's national history is based upon that nation's "good" and "bad" experiences. Indeed, the Poles would not have the same cause to rejoice in the early 1990s had their nation not endured the partitions of the 18th Century, foreign military occupation by a concert of powers, the two great conflagrations of the 20th Century and decades behind the Iron Curtain. Moreover, that the Polish nation thrived following the collapse of communism and that it was the most ethnically homogenous nation in Europe (1997) were made victories only because of 19th Century Russification and the NSDAP's attempts to obliterate Poland and Poles. Similarly, Israel would not be the object of love that it is amongst Israelis and the Jewish diaspora were it not for centuries of landlessness, religious persecution and the Shoah. Furthermore, the Battle of Britain being referred to as the "finest hour" of the British armed services was made possible only by Great Britain's decline and the sheer size and strength of the German juggernaut intent on conquering it. Therefore, to be loved, national histories must be colourful, rife with victory and defeat, and demonstrate an overall ability to achieve the impossible.
 
As far as the love of one's country is concerned, nations consist of more than merely history. Landscapes, seascapes (if applicable), architecture, culture, religion, scientific and technological advances, climate, current events, etc. are all factors in the love of one's nation. Love of one's people is a separate issue, given the increasing diversity of Western societies, although one could distinguish the English nation from the British state or the Flemish nation from immigrants to Belgium.

re: places

Let's dispense with the Kwai Chang Caine 'Grasshopper' mumbo-jumbo shall we? Do you agree with Dr Hand's comments,yes or no?

The Brits are goners.

The Brits are goners. If that event happened in the US and a major online paper carried that story, the comments would be in the hundreds. 17 out of 35 comments were from non-Brits, mostly Americans.  Either British readers agreed or sat their with mouths nailed shut like sheep or perhaps their politeness, the same politeness that is killing them, muzzled a response.

 

It's hard as an American to fathom the European mind. I'm just glad that religion, a sense of national pride, free speech and a robust political dialogue - all of the things that Europeans loath about us -  are still alive here.

 

 

places

Who is unhappy in one place, maybe unhappy in any place.
Who is happy in one place, maybe happy in any place.

promote hatred instead of love

I know what... we should hate... we should hate our countries... we should despise everything our ancestors fought for... it was stupid to fight against the Nazis to preserve our free nations... we should have put down our weapons and spit on our national flags and then burned them.

I really understand what this Dr Hand is trying to tell me now, it all makes sense now... it is so clear...

I think I will revert to Islam now and go burn my flag now... that has to be the logic way. Everyone should to this!

And then I will hoist the the Flag of the EUSSR and promote diversity to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!