THE CASE AGAINST PATRIOTISM
The idea of loving one’s country and doing everything to
protect it in any way possible has been around since the beginning of life as
we know it, and it is time to try and study it from a wholly new perspective; a
skeptic one.
The main objective of writing this article is to explain why
the concept of patriotism itself has been twisted and corrupted in order to
become the construct that holds under it a set of values and principles which shape what can only be described as a cult… Not only that, but it became
normal that the concept itself demands that those who criticize it be punished,
either socially or materially. In other words, it has been turned into
something very similar to religion in its most extreme forms.
The origins of patriotism
Before being able to go any further, we need to determine
the exact meaning of Patriotism. The word itself came from ‘patria’ which is based
on the Greek πατρίδα (patrída) meaning fatherland.
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, patriotism
is “love of one's country,” but that is not all, as the same source specifies
that it can also signify any or all of the following:
“-Special affection for one's own country;
-A sense of personal identification with the country;
-Special concern for the well-being of the country;
-Willingness to sacrifice to promote the country's good.”
The most important question in this regard should be: “Where
did such a special feeling and attachment come from?” Therefore, the real point
to look at becomes the source of patriotism within the processes of human
evolution, and the main factor which turned it into something beneficial during
our species’ development through the generations and the different epochs… Charles
Darwin in “The Descent of Man” (1871) states that there “can be no doubt that a
tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit
of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to
give aid to each other and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would
be victorious over most other tribes; and this would be natural selection.” In
this passage, it is clear that what Darwin was talking about was the help that
individuals were offering other members of their group in order to achieve what
was beneficial to all; and this included the helpers and the helped.
Arthur Keith, in his book “A new theory of human evolution” (1948)
explains that humans, in their beginnings, separated themselves into groups and
communities, and as a result of such division and separation a new need appeared;
and this was to “safeguard and protect the group which, when danger threatens
from without, or from within, muster forces for the defence of the group. This
set of mental activities, which automatically arms the members of a group in
its defence, is known as patriotism.” Keith does not hide the fact that “Patriotism
is an exaggerated and prejudiced form of affection which is manifested by
members of a group or tribe.”
But after all that, how did this quality of man mutate into
the justified act of killing other men; not only that, but it also became an
honor to do so in the name of the love of the motherland or the fatherland or
home or country, or whatever name or description given to the geographical
location where one was born, or where he/she resides for one reason or another.
In 1767, Adam Ferguson, a Scottish philosopher, wrote an
essay dedicated to the history of civil society, and in it we find an
illuminating thought: “Mankind not only find in their condition the sources of
variance and dissension: they appear to have in their minds the seeds of
animosity, and they embrace the occasions of mutual opposition, with alacrity
and pleasure”… And thus the concept of ‘The Other’ appeared, and it finally
became acceptable to defend your territory and your borders and your property,
whether private or public, with whatever means possible… And this transformed
itself into a virtue.
The whole idea can be described by saying that when our
ancestors lived in caves, they formed groups of not more than 15
people… And within each group, social classes, in their most primitive form,
appeared; as there were the Alpha Males, who were those who succeeded in
convincing all the others of their claimed superiority, either physical or intellectual,
and that gave them a better chance to be leaders and to plan for the clan and
put forward the paths for the future… Another social class was the
hunter/gatherer, who was endowed with speed of movement and with a higher
ability of observation, then there was the thinker or what we, with our present
day understanding, can call a philosopher, whose sole role in life was to
attempt presenting answers to the deep questions of our existence; why are we
here? What is the purpose of life? And how did it all come to being? It is
obvious to us that the mentioned classes evolved to become what we still see around
us today; as the Alpha Males are the political and economic leaders of the
states were we live, and hunters/gatherers are the workers and employees and
soldiers of today’s society… While the thinkers/philosophers went on to become
one of two: The Scientists, whose sole purpose is to understand how the
universe works, or The Religious Leaders whose sole purpose is to pretend to
know all the answers and thus demand control over our lives according to the
moral system they think is divine and represents the only truth in the world.
A very interesting study about this specific subject (by Sergey
Gavrilets of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville) was published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (May 25th, 2012)…
The study found that the major roles in the mating process were played by weak
males who had inferior fighting abilities and females who were faithful to
them.
Is Patriotism Right?
All what was mentioned leads us again to the question: How
should we judge Patriotism?
The main point in all the story of humanity should never exclude
that life is the most precious and valuable truth of all, and that preserving
life should be the only purpose of society and of civilization.
The concept of Patriotism was originally invented to
encourage the members of a certain community to defend the set of values that
is held high by that community… It was the way to protect the way of life of
that small society those members were a part of… But with time, different
schools of thought (including nationalistic and religious ideas) mixed to form
new types of Patriotism, or new ideologies… According to Wikipedia, “In
classical 18th century patriotism, loyalty to the State was chiefly considered
in contrast to loyalty to the Church, and it was argued that clerics should not
be allowed to teach in public schools as their patrie was heaven, so that they
could not inspire love of the homeland in their students…” This is a very
important factor: How can people be patriotic and be able to sacrifice anything
and everything to protect their homeland, if they believe that their final and
eternal homeland is beyond this life? And how can people be religious, and work
hard to improve their actual and present homeland regardless of what will come
after death? This conflict still stands today, as one side struggles to
persuade people to fight in the here and now for the here and now, while the
other is doing all it can to establish a state of mind which translates this
life into nothing more than a passage to another?
What Patriotism represents today is love of one’s country; a
country that you found yourself in because of pure luck, and in choosing it you
had no say… Is it logical to expect someone to sacrifice his/her own life for
those who in our past were the so-called Alpha Males? Because the wars that are
being fought in the modern times are not much different from those of the past…
The sole purpose of them is to preserve the way of life of the politicians, the
bankers, the wealthy businessmen, and the religious leaders… You cannot demand
that some people leave the only real and precious thing they own, their lives,
so that the top few continue to enjoy theirs.
The only way that a feeling, such as patriotism, can be
true, logical, and acceptable is in the case when someone relocates to a
country within which he feels truly connected to the values and to the way of
life of the people of that country… And not because he/she was born there.