I think ‘patriotism’ begins with love of self. Anything that threatens the ‘self’ is roughly translated into a misplaced attempt to act in a manner that will remove the threat. The notion that a real patriot is a selfless being who will sacrifice his/her all for country is in my mind an abomination and a contradiction.
The term is often linked to nationalism and ‘love of one’s country’ but IMHO it is ultimately love of self and if the country does not support you, is hostile to you etc. that love for the country will be replaced with rejection, and even enmity. Tolstoy called patriotism ‘stupid and immoral’—stupid because every patriot holds his country to be the best at the exclusion of all others; immoral because it calls on one to promote one country at the expense of all others and by any means, including war.
I guess every Brownshirt Nazi Jugend was a patriot…did that make him/her good as they hurled rocks through Jewish windows? It is often said that patriotism must be linked to a ‘just cause’…“just” in whose opinion and at what cost?
Is patriotism not confused with “duty” towards one’s country? We all have a responsibility to ensure that the world/country/community we live in is conducive to equitable living, safety, sustainability and so on. This we wish to protect for our own selfish ends; that is a moral and noble in itself, but the choice is ours to make. To suggest you live for the sake of others and could be called upon by external powers to sacrifice whatever for others is immoral.
“Ha!” you say…but you should be grateful for what your country has given you." (Socrates first mooted this moral imperative). Countries don’t give: people do; some unwittingly, some knowingly. Is patriotism then the currency demanded for the benefits bestowed by a country: how were these bestowed, how equitable were they and how consciously were they bestowed to elicit ‘patriotism’?
Patriotism should not be confused either with “concern” for one’s country, e.g. the moral record and history of your country (for example trying to correct the legacies of apartheid).
The patriotism Boogie refers to in the US is very powerful: agreed. But why is it such a tangible thing there? IMO it has to do with indoctrination, mind-games of the most evil sort; propaganda etc. People including atheists get carried away by the stories the media dish up to them: Bush’s ‘smoking guns’ being the most notorious…now it’s Iran’s turn.The movies tell of the heroic deeds, villains become heroes; local communities gang up against anybody considered ‘disloyal’ or ‘unpatriotic’; invading Iraq is good and ultimately they are the liberators of the Axis of Evil…all in God’s name.
Sorry maybe I’ve gone off topic