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The High Price of Patriotism

22 février 2010, 00:00

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The High Price of Patriotism is a comment posted on ‘Question d’alliances’ by Jean Claude de l’Estrac.

« Justement, des patriotes, je ne sais s’il y en a beaucoup en politique », writes  Mr. Jean Claude de l’Estrac. Indeed for all the hue and cry from those that push their way in politics, how to validate their self professed patriotism. Remember their often repeated remarks: « I have sacrificed everything to be of service to the country ». They charged that their professional status could bring galore of revenues, yet for their patriotic feelings, they came into politics. The politicians, the political activists, the political nominees, the political « Rodeur Boute », all profess above everything else their patriotic obviousness. Patriotism is the most delicate of concepts: attachment to a country or place is a necessary part of human identity... But then, feelings too can be translated into deeds with ugly results: nationalism, the loud-mouthed offspring of patriotism, has inflicted immense cruelties on mankind in the 20th century. Governments like to foster ‘love of country’ and often use the cinema to manipulate the thoughts and emotions of audiences in the direction they want. Patriotic themes in the cinema are therefore particularly suspect – that they come not from the heart but from the governments - especially so in the Second World War...

Do bear in mind that now the blaring demand inside Mauritius from the political head is for a three quarter majority win at the next general election contest.

Can an intelligent person be patriotic? Or is national loyalty a base emotion, fit only for the tabloid-reading masses? Patriotism as Orwell defined it - "devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people" - is making a comeback among members of the intelligentsia. Prospect magazine has put the idea of national loyalty to core beliefs back on the map of intellectual respectability.

The erring politicians never miss an opportunity of reminding us of our duty, call for tightening our belts and get to hard work, while they indulged in closet policies, throw out any dialogues with the people, allow waste, abuses, giving way to policies that surrender our most precious land for projects, whose terms and conditions are State secret.

Perhaps the most interesting and encouraging feature of this debate is that it is taking place above the tribal loyalties of party politics. Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same. It is the bridge between the future and the past. Patriotism denotes positive and supportive attitudes. Patriotism has ethical connotations: it implies that the ''''fatherland'' (however defined) is a moral standard or moral value in itself. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the father of totalitarian democracy, recognized that the citizen might not freely submit to the will of the tyrant. But that did not mean that the tyrant was wrong – no! It was the citizen who was mistaken!

America’s Founding Fathers recognized the entire democratic charade as the nightmare of power-hungry madmen. They embraced instead the notion of a national government with strictly limited powers, where the voice of the states and of the people commanded the government, and not vice-versa.

Mark Twain: The government is merely a servant - merely a temporary servant it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn''t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.

Zora Neale Hurston: I will fight for my country, but I will not lie for her.

Adlai Stevenson: What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility ... a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.

Barack Obama: The true test of the American ideal is whether we''re able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them.

D-Day.