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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (118695)	11/6/2003 4:31:08 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

dictionary.reference.com More than love of country. Willingness to defend and sacrifice for it. Iraqi suicide bombers against USA troops are patriots, obviously enough. Japanese bombers of Pearl Harbour were patriots. Undoubtedly. Vietcong killers of American soldiers were undoubtedly patriots. American pilots nuking Japanese civilians were patriots. Patriotism is an ugly, usually misguided business, commonly involving xenophobia, jingoism, racism and viciousness in chimpoid dominance rituals. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Christianity is the antithesis of patriotism. Universality of love is the antithesis of patriotism. Mqurice

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (118695)	11/10/2003 11:51:08 AM
From: gamesmistress	Respond to of 281500

Sorry, but I still think your definition is too limiting. "A patriot is anyone who fights to expel foreign soldiers from their nation. A quisling is anyone who helps a foreign army maintain its occupation." Unless, of course, you want "patriotism" to encompass only its most negative connotation. "Yes, Saddam deliberately slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his own people to enforce his tyranny, but he was a patriot because he fought the invaders in 1990/2003." A patriot may well fight invaders, but if that's the only thing he/she is willing to do for their country or fellow citizens they're more parasites than patriots. And it may be (haven't the time to document it now) that many if not most great Patriots have "directly organized, championed, and/or led actions which caused the deaths of large numbers of their fellow citizens." Patriotism is usually in fullest flower during wartime, which of course leads to many deaths of fellow citizens. I make a distinction, however, between a Franklin Roosevelt, who presided over a war which resulted in over a million American casualties, and a Pol Pot, who deliberately ordered the deaths of 1 to 3 million of his own people "to "purify" Cambodian society of capitalism, Western culture, religion and all foreign influences in favour of an isolated and totally self-sufficient Maoist agrarian state."