On Patrioticism
The ruling class, and sometimes those who control media sources, often define patriotism, and then use the patriotic definition to promote their "special interests." Attached to the definition is a bundle of "catch " expressions; "pulling together," "our country right or wrong," "no time to contradict the leaders," "our cause is just," etc.
The definition places everyone on guard. Nobody wants to be accused of a lack of patriotism. It is recognized that in a time of crisis a nation's people should be "pulling together." But "pulling together" is correctly performed when it doesn't pull apart the country's principles, doesn't destroy its foundations of thought and discussion, doesn't fragment its vision and wisdom. Pulling together does not mean blind obedience from the part of the people.
When the state becomes so powerful so that the will of the people is subjugated to the rule of the state, patriotism dies along with the true rule of Justice, the basic freedoms that should keep the Democratic System,
Hitler and Mussolini were a geniuses in usurping the patriotism inherernt to the German people and led their people and their nation to a perverted form of nationalism and destructive violence. It is the same thing that iws happening in countries such as the USA where the state is using the people's nationalism vto dominate the
weaker countries through their corporate wealth and military might that iws now suffocating the world.
When the suffocation of people's will becomes the rule, then, the defense of the true Democratic principles becomes a necessity and Patriotic. The tearing down of fascist state to replace it with a pro people state becomes a patriotic choice, an urgent necessity to reinstate the sovereignity of the people.
