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What is Patriotism?
:: Is a Patriot
just a missile? Are we loyal only to oil? ::
by John-Paul Leonard
Patriotism means loyalty to the patria, the Roman word for fatherland. The
idea of patrimony or heritage is closely related.
As mankind evolves and the world grows smaller and more tightly
intertwined, the meaning of patria also evolves. In many important ways, we
all realize our real home is this planet.
History and anthropology show this process of evolution clearly. Early
mankind lived in small tribes. Each one called itself "humankind." They
used another word - usually "beast" or "barbarian" - for their neighbors.
This mind-set remains very much with us, too.
The gods of early peoples were also dedicated to their own tribe alone.
Very late, after humans became adept at abstractions, and experienced in
interactions with other nations, the idea of One God for all mankind struck
a fragile root. This idea made the early Christians a threat to Rome,
savagely persecuted, lest each whim of Caesar cease to be a divine command.
Jesus was also hated by the reactionaries among His fellow Jews, for
globalizing the secret of monotheism - like Prometheus of Greek myth,
crucified for sharing the secret of fire with humankind. Jesus' lesson is
still ahead of its time even today: we say "God Bless America," not "God
Save Mankind" (while most of the rest of the world prays, "Dear God, save
mankind from America!")
Already millennia overdue, like Jesus' Kingdom of God, mankind's next
revolutionary step, if we are to survive in this world wide web we weave,
is an elevated and universal concept of patria. Our true patrimony is the
heritage of ideals dear to all peoples. America would do better to pledge
allegiance to her Constitution, a set of fairly universal ideals - rather
than to a flag which, like a pagan idol, can bear any message a
propagandist or dictator loads it with. How easily we were panicked and
tricked into scrapping our Bill of Rights for a so-called "Patriot Act." We
will never be free until we outgrow this phase of play with emotional
noise, of baby fumbling with blocks, and reach the mature stage of literacy
in ideals and principles.
The patrimony of a civilized person is the heritage of civilization. His or
her patriotism is loyalty to those values. And strangely enough, we all
remember that Iraq was the cradle of civilization. Almost 4,000 years ago,
the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi was the first truly civilized system of
law. He had hit on the key principle of justice: the punishment must fit
the crime.
Today, the USA has trampled on that most ancient law, bombing and invading
Iraq without provocation. These are acts of barbarism, against
civilization. Can a civilized person be loyal to barbarism? In ancient
times, "barbaric" meant only the sound of a foreign tongue to unfamiliar
ears: ba-ba-ba. Today it has a more universal meaning: an action that
violates the code of civilization, the common human heritage of values.
The Iraqi troops are fighting for their fatherland, their ancient patria,
against a barbaric aggression. They are surely patriots by any measure. And
our troops? Where is the patria our "boys" are killing for? Are they
defending America? That is a transparent tissue of lies from our new Caesars.
Anyone with an open mind and a dab of data about the war-mad "neo-con"
lobby, Wolfowitz, Perle, and the rest, can see this is a proxy war, can
tell who our troops are fighting for. Israel, of all countries - perhaps
the only state in the world that categorically rejects the most universal
political values of modern civilization, to wit: One man, one vote - not
bantustan apartheid. Pluralism, not theocracy. A man's home is his castle,
not ethnic cleansing.
America's eyes are closed, suckered by the pacifier of propaganda.
Sleepwalking, we drowned our ideals in the blood and mud of Palestine,
smashing the Pandora's box that unleashed a myriad demons of war and hatred.
Once we realize that Oops! our troops are in Iraq by mistake, by intrigue,
our army is there to fulfill the utterly alien agenda of a foreign power,
the imaginary conflict of loyalties between country and civilization will
vanish. The attack on Iraq is also one on the best interests of our
country. To "support" our troops in carrying out a tragic blunder does not
compute. Loyalty to catastrophic mistakes is no loyalty, it is obstinate
stupidity.
To destroy in a few weeks the heritage of goodwill America built up in the
world over centuries, to appease a foreign lobby, no matter how tiny or how
powerful - this is no patriotism. This is treason, this is reason to:
Stop our troops.
Note:
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See "Behind the scenes of the Iraq War"
- by Harun Yahya
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