An outdated concept? (Patriotism)

Member Name: MichaelR

Product:	Patriotism
Date:	11/10/01 (450 review reads)
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This is a difficult one for me… the concept of “patriotism” is not one that I have historically had a lot of time for – I don’t like the institutionalised idea of “patriotism” which outlines what one must be, how one must think, act etc in order to be considered a “patriot”. Patriotism is something that’s often used as a tool by those in power I feel… patriotism along with religion is also used as a form of blackmail almost – suggestions that if you do not agree with the appointed leaders of a nation or a religion then you are not a “patriot” or you are not a “true believer”.

I find this suggestion that in order to be considered “patriotic” one must act like some sort of drone - devoid of free thought and will - to be highly offensive, but it’s a suggestion that is acted upon by the large majority of some populations, including the population of this country, in my view.

I don’t identify with a lot of the things that should make a “true patriot” feel a rush of pride… for example I have to say that I feel absolutely nothing when our National Anthem is played… and that is grounds in most people’s eyes for a person to be branded as unpatriotic… I have to say that I feel much more emotion when I hear “The Star Spangled Banner”. I even know all the words to it, because it’s an anthem that stands for the same things as, I feel, this country does – just take in the words carefully:

“Oh Say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed,
At the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars,
Through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched,
Were so gallantly streaming

And the rocket’s red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thought the night, r><br><br>That our flag was still there

Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free,
And the home of the brave?”

Just compare it to ours:

“God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!”

The US anthem I feel says something about a people and a land – indeed most national anthems do. Ours however talks about nothing except our Queen – it says nothing of the British people or our land, and that’s why I feel nothing when it is played or sung.

In the eyes of most, that probably means that I am not patriotic. I don’t really feel that’s fair though… as I do feel a huge surge of pride when I hear “Land of Hope and Glory” (which I feel should be installed as our National Anthem) and a few other patriotic songs.

I guess it’s not surprising, given what I’ve already said, that I don’t have any time or respect for the Royal Family – again that’s a pretty “unpatriotic” statement to make, isn’t it? Indeed, in less enlightened times I would probably have been strung up for making such a declaration. But that is not to say that I don’t love this country, or the things that it stands for.

That’s my point really – “patriots” are often identified as those who have strong feelings for what I would consider to be pretty trivial things that don’t really have much to do with what the nation actually is, what it actually stands for. E.g., our Armed Forces are asked to pledge allegiance to “Queen and country”… I personally don’t feel that the “Queen” part is really relevant or necessary… officially they are still Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, but s
he’s unlikely to be the one sending them off to war.

To me, patriotism is simply love of ones’ country and nothing beyond that.

Patriotism is a complicated concept in this country (by “country” I mean Britain) because here we live in countries within a country… some of us would call ourselves “British”, others would identify more with our own – hmmmm, how to put it? “Smaller countries”? I don’t know how to put it, but you know what I mean.

Are you British? Or English? Or maybe you’re Scottish or Welsh? But are you also British?

I think that most English people would say they’re British. Most Scots would say they are Scottish and I think that most Welsh people would say they were Welsh rather than British… there seems to be a certain shame associated with calling oneself “English” for some reason – I never have understood why.

Personally, I feel English first and British second… maybe the idea of “being English” has been strengthened by my living in Scotland for large parts of the last three years – where I do feel it’s fair to say that English people are made to feel very foreign… apologies in advance to any Scotsmen and women out there who may take offence over that comment… but I do feel that it is very true. As an Englishman, I do in many ways feel more “foreign” in Scotland than I do anywhere else in the world.

I don’t feel it’s a bad thing to identify with one of the member countries of the Union first and the Union itself second though…. Which would lead me nicely onto Europe, but I have other points that I wish to address first, so I will come back to that.

How far should one go to stay loyal to ones country?

A question that is very tough to answer…. Should a patriot be willing to die for his or her country? <
br>
<br>I’m not sure.

For me, if I were to be asked to lay my life on the line to fight off a foreign invader, I feel that I would do it more to preserve some greater way of life than “Britishness”… that I would do it to preserve what it is to be British rather than to preserve the state itself… the same thing? Perhaps, but what I’m trying to get across is the fact that I would be more eager to protect the freedoms and ideals that we have in this country rather than the country itself. I wouldn’t care too much if the more trivial aspects of “Britishness” were destroyed as long as the more important, underlying principles of the British way of life remained intact.

I suppose it is the same thing really…

And that DOES lead me onto Europe again, so I’ll deal with that now:

I fail to see why so many people are scared of Europe. We do, after all, live within a Union of different countries already, and, as I have already said, the fact that we are British does not detract from our national identities within the Union. We can still be English or Scottish or Welsh or Ulstermen whilst still being British – why should we be any less English or Scottish or whatever because we are also European?

I am unashamedly Pro-European. In addition to being English first and British second, I do also feel thirdly European… I think that we can reap many benefits from being part of a larger Union – much as we already do. We are a Union already, and I don’t see why we should object to our Union becoming part of an even greater Union. It would not have to mean the end of our national identity, or even necessarily our rights of self-government. We have devolved power already in the UK, and so I feel that the same concepts that we already have could be applied to Europe.

I just feel that Europe offers us a lot and asks very little in return, but
with our Island mentality and ideas of self-importance we don’t like to accept this. I don’t like these qualities… again, they’re things that are considered compulsory if one wants to be considered to be a “patriotic” person… but I fail to see what isolationism and jingoism really have to do with being proud of your country.

There’s much to be said for closer integration into Europe. There’s strength in numbers, as they say, and we are a small nation. We like to think that we are a “heavyweight” in the world, almost a superpower, but the reality is quite different.

A united Europe could be a superpower, and I feel we could still all be British and English or Scottish etc within it.

Do I have problems visiting or praising foreign lands?

No, not at all.

I think that Jingoism and Xenophobia – the inherent, well, if not hatred then “dislike” of Johnny Foreigner is another unappealing aspect of what many consider to be “patriotism” in Britain. My girlfriend is Canadian (living in Britain) so that obviously gives me an interest in that country and what it stands for, but generally though, I have no problems praising another country or admitting when it has done something better than us – to do otherwise isn’t really in our interests. It is only by recognising the achievements and the good points of other nations that we can improve our own.

To sit back and pretend that we are better than everyone else does us no favours and wins us no friends.

Sport (and I mean sports in which there is official national representation – I don’t support David Coulthard or Tim Henman simply because they are British – I support the man who I consider to be most skilled – regardless of nationality) makes it easy to be patriotic – because although it is hard to agree on what it is to be English,
Scottish, British, or whatever – Sport is something that unites us all and upon which we can all agree – we can all rejoice or suffer along with our national sporting teams. There’s nothing quite like a football match to ensure enthusiastic flag-waving!

To answer the question posed at the top of the page then:

No, patriotism is not an outdated concept in today’s society. It is just a concept that like all other concepts today needs to evolve and become more personalised. It needs to be more of an emotion than a set of rules. As a concept that binds us together as individuals within a collective, it is a great concept – but as a concept that tries to make us drones that are part of a collective, it is outdated, and I don’t feel it has any place in the modern, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic Britain.

You may struggle to find many people who would answer “yes” to the question: “Do you consider yourself to be a patriot?” today, but I doubt you would find many people who would say they don’t love their country.