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TechnoratiThe Nation has always marched to a different drummer, opposing US involvement in the Spanish-American War and World War I and the Vietnam War, while giving all-out support to the US effort in World War II. Former Nation editor Ernest Gruening of Alaska was one of only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that led to the Vietnam debacle.
As a result, we've been called--among other things--un-American and unpatriotic throughout the 142 years The Nation has been around and publishing. After all, going back to our founding by abolitionists, through the movement for labor rights in the 20s and 30s, and the movement for civil rights in the 60s, those who fought to achieve the American dream of equal rights for all were scorned, ridiculed and deemed disloyal.
Our definition of patriotism is fighting to make sure your country lives up to its highest ideals--which is one reason the magazine published a special issue on patriotism for its 125th anniversary in July 1991. It came during the aftermath of the First Gulf War, when many of that war's opponents were being slapped with the "unpatriotic" label. The anniversary issue was a reflection of our love of country and it gave voice to the rich and diverse panoply of ideas about what patriotism means, has meant, and will mean.
In the lead editorial, the eminent political thinker John Schaar described the issue and its contributors: "This patriotism is rooted in the love of one's own land and people, love too of the best ideals of one's own culture and tradition…This patriotism too has deep roots and long continuity in our history. Its voice is often temporarily shouted down…but it has never been stilled…We should not be surprised if this voice is often heard lamenting or rebuking the country's failures to live up to its own best ideals, which have always been the ideals of the fullest possible freedom and the most nearly equal justice for all…There are about as many kinds of patriots and patriotism [in this issue] as there are writers. And that is exactly as it should be. For the chief worry about the thing called patriotism is that one or another group is always trying to grab the term, put a parochial meaning on it and impose that meaning as the only legitimate one, silencing and excluding others, denying them a place at the table."
Here are some creative and keen insights on patriotism from other contributors in that issue:
William Sloane Coffin: "… But if uncritical lovers of their country are the most dangerous of patriots, loveless critics are hardly the best. If you love the good you have to hate evil, else you're sentimental; but if you hate evil more than you love the good, you're a good hater. Surely the best patriots are those who carry on not a grudge fight but a lover's quarrel with their country…. Beyond saluting the flag, let us pledge allegiance 'to the earth, and to the flora, fauna and human life that it supports; one planet indivisible, with clean air, soil and water, liberty, justice and peace for all.'"
Molly Ivins: "I believe patriotism is best expressed in our works, not our parades. We are the heirs of the most magnificent political legacy any people has ever been given. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident….' It is the constant struggle to protect and enlarge that legacy, to make sure that it applies to all citizens, that patriotism lies…. Vote, write, speak, work, march, sue, organize, fight, struggle--whatever it takes to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Ran across one of our good [legislators] at the end of the last session…. He said he felt like a country dog in the city. 'If I run they bite my ass, if I hold still, they fuck me.' Calling all country dogs: It's a helluva fight."
Jesse Jackson: "… Those who have fought for the highest and best principles of our country, the true patriots, have been vilified and crucified. The true patriots invariably disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed, and are persecuted in their lifetimes even as their accomplishments are applauded after their deaths…."
Mario Cuomo: "The term 'patriotism' seems to be raised most often in the context of military action and at times has been used as a test of support for our country's military activities. But I understand it to include a respect for contrasting viewpoints, an acceptance of dissent, a tolerance--and even a welcoming--of the clashing diversity of voices that is uniquely American…. A proper patriotism would recognize that there are no absolutes when it comes to solving our social and international problems, except the standard by which we must judge all goals--our willingness to help one another, and to help others."
Natalie Merchant: "Patriotism asks that we embrace a unified America, yet no simple vision of America can accommodate its diversity.... The heritage we retain and the characteristics of the one we adopt intermingle; we are defining and becoming American…. There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, 'I disagree.' We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect President."
Other contributors to the patriotism included Floyd Abrams, Sue Coe, Slavenka Drakulic, Martin Duberman, Howard Fast, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Vivian Gornick, David Halberstam, Hendrick Hertzberg, Margot Kidder, Erwin Knoll, Ring Lardner Jr., Colman McCarthy, Mary McGrory, Katha Pollitt, Calvin Trillin and Gore Vidal.
Sixteen years later, on this Fourth of July, our nation is so very far from fulfilling the promise articulated by these great patriots. That's why The Nation continues to publish and struggle to make this a better place--to repair and renew that which has been shredded: our Bill of Rights, our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution… always informed by what the eminent historian Eric Foner wrote in the days after 9/11, "At times of crisis, the most patriotic act of all is the unyielding defense of civil liberties, the right to dissent and equality before the law for all Americans."
Katrina Vanden Heuvel is editor of The Nation.
© 2007 The Nation
23 Comments so far
Show AllThe road to hell is paved with good intentions.
-- Late 16th Century Proverb
please read the followıng from a t
We would love to have you speak at the Conference on World Affairs in Boulder Colorado next spring, Katrina!
@Ron
Yes it is true. The following is an extract from a meeting between Saddam Hussein and the US ambassador April Glaspie on July 25th 1990. The quote is from the ambassador:
"But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait. I was in the American Embassy in Kuwait during the late 60's. The instruction we had during this period was that we should express no opinion on this issue and that the issue is not associated with America. James Baker has directed our official spokesmen to emphasize this instruction."
Iraq had genuine grievances both historically (Kuwait was an artificial statelet carved out of Mesopotamia by the Sykes-Picot Anglo/French post Ottoman Imperial settlement) and contemporaneously (angled drilling under the border stealing Iraqi oil, plus unpaid monies pledged by Kuwait to Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war) hence the discussion. Saddam got the green light he expected, after all he had been a US client for nearly twenty years by that time. Note the specific input from Bush family consigliere James Baker, then Secretary of State, and whose boss was soon describing Saddam as "worse than Hitler" and "a grave threat to world peace". It was a set-up in other words. And lest we forget, it was immediately after 'Desert Storm' that Bush declared it was "the beginning of the New World Order".
For a transcript of the meeting go here:
http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/glaspie.html
Ken Mitchell sez...
"I supported our actions in Korea and Desert Storm because we were fighting an invasion. I also supported going into Afghanistan in 2001 because that nation was involved in 9/11."
I sez...
Korea was a blunder, Vietnam was a blunder. Both of those actions (not wars) were begun under false pretenses too.
Why does the US have to be the cop on the block? And another thing, Afghanistan was not involved in 9/11, people who happened to live there were. The bombers were, as we all know, Saudis. Why not justify a war with the Saudis?
This GWOT crap is nothing but a bumper sticker, as has been said before. When the IRA were blowing up shops in London, did GB declare war on terror? When the anti-abortionists killed MDs and blew up clinics, did we declare war on those people? The justice system is there to deal with these people. Did Israel declare war on Germany when the Bader-Meinhof gang killed and bombed their people? War is the last form of diplomacy a country can use. But you can't declare a war on a group of people with ideas that are dangerous, war is the wrong tool to use. I am not saying that we should negotiate either, but spending billions of dollars on a war that may be enriching certain politicians and is a policy of the republican party is a pretty sad thing for anybody in this country to tolerate. We are a stupid nation. and one last thing, the anti-Israel faction on this page is getting on my nerves. Sympathy for the Arab cause is sickening. Where is the Arab help for the Palestinians? Why are they not allowed to settle in the Arab countries and are treated as second-class citizens where they are able to go to work?
"Patriotism" is a ruse--it hides the fact that the state exists to protect the interests of the rich. Bush and Co. have pretty much shoved that in our faces, all the while cowering us to be "patriotic." Why should one "love" one strip of land more than another? One culture more than another? Or one social system more than another--especially if that system is so corrupt, abusive, and destructive as to fail in all the areas crucial to survival: health care, housing, education, national security? Patriotism should be replaced by Constitutional--I'd prefer a leader who respects the Constitution any day over a patriot.
Patriotism...
George W. Bush Movin' Out Campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB6PNTKM2xg
B.ush
U.S.
S.oldiers
H.ome!
The Nation opposed the Spanish-American War? Outrageous! I'm cancelling my subscription at once! ;)
If patriotism is defined as wanting whatever is best for your country's long term interests, then those who were anti-war dissidents from the start, who merely wanted to prevent the US making her "biggest foreign policy blunder in history," were the real patriots.
"For the chief worry about the thing called patriotism is that one or another group is always trying to grab the term, put a parochial meaning on it and impose that meaning as the only legitimate one, silencing and excluding others, denying them a place at the table."
"Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels" (Mark Twain)
Ken Mitchell July 4th, 2007 11:50 am
Afghanistan? I think you'll find that someone wanted to build an oil pipeline ... it is referred to in
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0601-01.htm
"The War Is Over"
(Lyrics by the brilliant US folk singer Phil Ochs)
"Silent soldiers on a silver screen
Framed in fantasies, and drugged in dreams
Unpaid actors of the mystery
The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free
And what's this got to do with me
I declare the war is over
Its over, its over
"Drums are drizzling on a grain of sand
Fading rhythms of a fading land
Prove your courage in the proud parade
Trust your leaders where mistakes are almost never made
And they're afraid that I'm afraid
I'm afraid the war is over
Its over, its over
"So do your duty, boys, and join with pride
Serve your country in her suicide,
Find a flag, so you can wave goodbye,
But just before the end, even treason might be worth a try
This country is to young to die...
I declare the war is over
Its over, its over
"One-legged veterans will greet the dawn
And they're whistling marches as they mow the lawn
And the gargoyles only sit and grieve
The gypsy fortune teller told me that we'd been deceived
-You only are what you believe
I believe the war is over
Its over, its over...
...
Patriotism is a careful balance between the love of truth, the love of justice, and the love of beauty constantly testing our love of country. When there is an imbalance, not only are we unpatriotic,we are also guilty of idolatry.
There are just too many idolators in our government! True patriotism would be to throw them out as quickly as possible!!
Patriotism is loving the country it ought to be.
I don't think it is about country with the likes of Bush and his cadrere.We love our ideals, and they love their privilege and will destroy anything or anyone they perceive as a threat.
Ken - I read somewhere that Kuwait was engaged in slant drilling. They put their oil rigs on the Iraq border and then drilled down at an incline to get Iraq's oil. When Saddam asked them to stop the practice, they just did more of it. Saddam told the US ambassador about the problem, and asked if the US would mind if he invaded Kuwait to stop the slant drilling. She told him that the US would not get involved in inter-Arab disputes, thereby giving Saddam the green light to invade. Now if that is true, (and the stories of Saddam's soldiers throwing babies out of incubators was eventually shown to be Kuwaiti propaganda), you might feel differently about supporting Desert Storm. At the time, of course, we were all told that it was nothing but an act of unjustified aggression so of course most everyone applauded our smashing of the Iraqi army. But now we can say that maybe Saddam got suckered into a war he thought would be a small, local thing. Similar doubts can be cast upon the other two wars as well but time doesn't permit...
Fed Up, you beat me to it.
Chomsky's observation is so often overlooked, and yet so dead-on.
"You really think this country never sponsored terrorism?
Human rights violations we continue the saga
El Salvador and the Contras in Nicaragua
And on top of that
You still want to take me to prison
Just cause I wont trade HUMANITY for PATRIOTISM"
-Hip Hop artist Immortal Technique
Our forefathers are turning in their graves with our taxation without representation, tyranny of the corporations and lack of gov. of, for and by the people.
In their wildest dreams the forefathers believed the gov. or another rogue nation would be ruling us, never corporations.
Even Ben Franklin wouldn't be slick enough to get us out of this. Good for putting his old tin cup out of foreign aide from China I suppose.
Party on, constitutional convention.
"Our definition of patriotism is fighting to make sure your country lives up to its highest ideals..."
Unless you're Iraqi, whose "highest ideals" include not being a puppet controlled by a foreign government, then you're a terrorist, Al Qaeda, dead-ender, Al Qaeda associate, Al Qaeda friend of a friend...
Maybe we need to define "highest ideals" a little better. It's not like this is the first administration to abuse power and bomb the innocent and enact secret agendas for their corporate owners. America's so-called highest ideals have never been more than a facade masking the truth the rest of the world knows: one way or the other, we'll blow you up unless you do as you're told.
America is certainly holding up that ideal...
[Patriotism] ...is a word which always commemorates a robbery.
Mark Twain
Chomsky on terrorism: "The only way we can put a permanent end to terrorism is to stop participating in it"
You're GD Fvkin right Noam........
Of course, "...patriotism is fighting to make sure your country lives up to its highest ideals..."!
And just like anything (one) that loves, guides, and corrects (ie, parents & children), there are times the country needs correcting, as well.
This does mean discussion from all sides, debate, and even disagreement.
It does not mean the harboring of lies, planted only in recent years, in our minds, by the government and news media, that liberal = evil and only conservative = good, accurate.
Such lop sided thinking produces nothing even remotedly connected to our true values.
In Molly's memory, FITE BACK!
I supported our actions in Korea and Desert Storm because we were fighting an invasion. I also supported going into Afghanistan in 2001 because that nation was involved in 9/11. However, I agree with the rest of the article.