you're either an American of something else choose sides carefully
On May 25, 9:50 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > On Patriotismby Fred ReedPatriotism is everywhere thought to be a virtue > rather than a mental disorder. I don’t get it. > If I told the Rotarians or an American Legion hall that “John is a patriot,” > all would approve greatly of John. If I told them that patriotism was nothing > more than the loyalty to each other of dogs in a pack, they would lynch me. > Patriotism, they believe, is a Good Thing. > Of course the Japanese pilots who attacked Pearl Harbor were patriots, as > were the German soldiers who murdered millions in the Second World War. The > men who brought down the towers in New York were patriots, though of a > religious sort. Do we admire their patriotism? > Of course not. When we say “John is a patriot,” we mean “John is a reliable > member of our dog pack,” nothing more. The pack instinct seems more ancient, > and certainly stronger, than morality or any form of human decency. Thus, > once the pack – citizenry, I meant to say – have been properly roused to a > pitch of patriotism, they will, under cover of the most diaphanous pretexts, > rape Nanking, bomb Hiroshima, kill the Jews or, if they are Jews, > Palestinians. We are animals of the pack. We don’t admire patriotism. We > admire loyalty to ourselves. > The pack dominates humanity. Observe that the behavior of urban gangs – the > Vice Lords, Mara Salvatrucha, Los Locos Intocables, Crips, Bloods – precisely > mirrors that of more formally recognized gangs, which are called “countries.” > Gangs, like countries, are intensely territorial with recognized borders > fiercely defended. The soldiers of gangs, like those of countries, have > uniforms, usually clothing of particular colors, and they “throw signs” – > make the patterns of fingers indicating their gang – and wear their hats > sideways in different directions to indicate to whom their patriotism is > plighted. They have generals, councils of war, and ranks paralleling the > colonels and majors of national packs. They fight each other endlessly, as do > countries, for territory, for control of markets, or because someone insulted > someone. It makes no sense – it would be more reasonable for example to > divide the market for drugs instead of killing each other – but they do it > because of the pack instinct. > Packery dominates society. Across the country high schools form basketball > packs and do battle on the court, while cheerleaders jump and twirl, > preferably in short skirts (here we have the other major instinct) to > maintain patriotic fervor in the onlookers. Cities with NFL franchises hire > bulky felons from around the country to bump forcefully into the parallel > felons of other cities, arousing warlike sentiments among their respective > fellow dogs. > Fans. Fans. > Such is their footballian enthusiasm that they will sometimes burn their own > cities in delight at victory or disturbance at loss. Without the pack > instinct, football would hardly matter to them at all. > It’s everywhere. The Olympics, the World Cup, racial groups, political > parties – Crips and Bloods, all. > Part of patriotism is nationalism, the political expression of having given > up to the pack all independence of thought. > Patriotism is of course incompatible with morality. This is more explicit in > the soldier, a patriot who agrees to kill anyone he is told to kill by the > various alpha-dogs – President, Fuehrer, emperor, Duce, generals. > Is this not literally true? An adolescent enlists, never having heard of > Ruritania, which is perhaps on the other side of the earth. A year later, > having learned to manage the Gatlings on a helicopter gunship, he is told > that Ruritania is A Grave Threat. Never having seen a Ruritanian, being > unable to spell the place, not knowing where it is (you would be amazed how > many veterans of Viet Nam do not know where it is) he is soon killing > Ruritanians. He will shortly hate them intensely as vermin, scuttling > cockroaches, rice-propelled paddy maggots, gooks, or sand niggers. > The military calls the pack instinct “unit cohesion,” and fosters it to the > point that soldiers often have more loyalty to the military than to the > national pack. Thus it is easy to get them to fire on their own citizens. It > has not happened in the United States since perhaps Kent State, but in the > past the soldiery were often used to kill striking workers. All you have to > do is to get the troops to think of the murderees as another group. > If you talk to patriots, particularly to the military variety, they will > usually be outraged at having their morality questioned. Here we encounter > moral compartmentation, very much a characteristic of the pack. If you have > several dogs, as we do, you will note that they are friendly and affectionate > with the family and tussle playfully among themselves – but bark furiously at > strangers and, unless they are very domesticated, will attack unknown dogs > cooperatively and kill them. > Similarly the colonel next door will be honest, won’t kick your cat or steal > your silverware. Should some natural disaster occur, work strenuously to save > lives, at the risk of his own if need be. Yet he will consciencelessly > cluster-bomb downtown Baghdad, and pride himself on having done so. A > different pack, you see. It is all right to attack strange dogs. > The pack instinct, age old, limbic, atavistic, gonadal, precludes any > sympathy for the suffereings of outsiders. If Dog pack A attacks intruding > dog pack B to defend its territory, its members can’t afford to think, “Gosh, > I’m really hurting this guy. Maybe I should stop.” You don’t defend territory > by sharing it. Thus if you tell a patriot that his bombs are burning alive > thousands of children, or that the embargo on Iraq killed half a million kids > by dysentery because they couldn’t get chlorine to sterilize water, he won’t > care. He can’t. > The same instinct governs thought about atrocities committed in wartime. In > every war, every army (correctly) accuses the other side of committing > atrocities. Atrocities are what armies do. Such is the elevating power of > morality that soldiers feel constrained to lie about them. But patriots just > don’t care. Psychologists speak of demonization and affecting numbing and > such, but it’s really just that the tortured, raped, butchered and burned are > members of the other pack. > I need a drink.http://www.fredoneverything.net/Patriotism.shtml -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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