What about patriotism?
What about patriotism? Love of one’s country is a normal and healthy feeling. As Krishnamacharya used to say: if you do not love your country, how can you love the whole planet? You cannot love others if you do not love yourself. In normal circumstances, a person will love most his or her childhood surroundings. An European misses the play of the seasons. An Indian the heat of his home country. An Inuit the long polar nights and days.
Patriotism, however, is the distorsion of this normal love and occurs when a country’s self-esteem is at its lowest. It is like religious fundamentalism: when one’s religion has ceased to be a source of spiritual strength, its value must be proven by fanatically affirming that it is the only true religion. It is no wonder that religious fundamentalism and patriotism are always inflated in totalitarian countries. When internal and external policies do not bear scrutiny, the response is always: love it or leave it. Fascist regimes offer a surrogate love for a flag, a symbol, instead of love for the real thing. Patriots live in the illusion that their country is better than other countries. Since this is never true, the only way for them to prove that other countries and people are worse than theirs is by beating them in war or introducing racist policies, which of course is the whole reason why patriotism is furthered by fascist regimes. When the frustrations and agressivity of the people are directed to the outside, their attention is turned away from home where the real problems lie. No wonder fascism flourishes when the economy does badly. Or rather when the whole health of the nation is hijacked by a few. The Earth’s and humanity’s resources are always abundant and there is no conceivable reason for an economy to do badly. Lack and want result from unequal distribution only.. The proof is the amount of money spent worldwide on armaments. The trillions of dollars that go into the armament industry would be sufficient to feed, shelter, educate, heal and provide meaningful work and free time for the whole world population many times over. As it is, this money is concentrated in a few hands who promote wars and hate between peoples in order to justify their trade. The clue to the whole economic problem lies in a single word: sharing.
Patriotism, however, is the distorsion of this normal love and occurs when a country’s self-esteem is at its lowest. It is like religious fundamentalism: when one’s religion has ceased to be a source of spiritual strength, its value must be proven by fanatically affirming that it is the only true religion. It is no wonder that religious fundamentalism and patriotism are always inflated in totalitarian countries. When internal and external policies do not bear scrutiny, the response is always: love it or leave it. Fascist regimes offer a surrogate love for a flag, a symbol, instead of love for the real thing. Patriots live in the illusion that their country is better than other countries. Since this is never true, the only way for them to prove that other countries and people are worse than theirs is by beating them in war or introducing racist policies, which of course is the whole reason why patriotism is furthered by fascist regimes. When the frustrations and agressivity of the people are directed to the outside, their attention is turned away from home where the real problems lie. No wonder fascism flourishes when the economy does badly. Or rather when the whole health of the nation is hijacked by a few. The Earth’s and humanity’s resources are always abundant and there is no conceivable reason for an economy to do badly. Lack and want result from unequal distribution only.. The proof is the amount of money spent worldwide on armaments. The trillions of dollars that go into the armament industry would be sufficient to feed, shelter, educate, heal and provide meaningful work and free time for the whole world population many times over. As it is, this money is concentrated in a few hands who promote wars and hate between peoples in order to justify their trade. The clue to the whole economic problem lies in a single word: sharing.