I have heard the terms 'true', 'real', 'genuine', etc thrown out in reference to being American. Like as in "Dude, are you a 'real' American?" I wonder, is there genuine pride and motivation that comes from being American, or is it a tool to attack others? Do people wake up and do great things because they know they are American, or do they say such things to throw people under the bus? I must say there is a little of both, but I think patriotism is something that can be abused too easily. For that matter, I sometimes cannot distinguish between what I see as patriotism and what I see as fascism and violence. I realize that within our lifetime there will still be borders and nations that divide us, and not everyone will get along with everyone else.
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There are several uses for this: 1) Loyalty is blinding. It makes you stop questioning things, and stop judging things by results/performance. For example, an overly loyal Houston Rockets fan is far less likely to mind James Harden's performances in drawing fouls when fans of other teams are critical of it. In the same way, a patriotic American citizen is more likely to turn a blind eye to abuses of power when those who claim to be patriotic do in fact abuse power. This can be seen in both parties. 2) It is a fantastic diversion of criticism. If you are not patriotic, then the patriotic people will (As we have seen many times) ask you why you hate the country even if you are engaging in constructive criticism about a particular topic. So for example, I have seen on this board that if an American points out a foreign policy failure, they are viciously attacked by the patriotic Americans as if they broke some American Bro Code. It's not uncommon for people to throw out "why do you hate America?" over here. 3) Establishes a false sense of trust which aids those in power. So when deciding to go to war with Iraq, George W Bush mastered the art of patriotism by painting Al Qaeda as pure haters of America, saying that any patriot would support an attack, and drawing a clear line by saying "with us or against us". This drew on all 3 points because Americans totally forgot to check whether there is any real evidence of WMD's or Al Qaeda in Iraq. All in all, there is absolutely no benefit in being patriotic. IMO there is no logic to it either. Unless you are in power, in which case it can be used masterfully to achieve goals, shield criticism and divert attention. One needs to look no further than tyrants and leaders who are always one riot away from being kicked out - how closely they cling to patriotism. This thing has gotten so out of hand now that there are anthems, chants, logos, colors, etc. It's incredible to me that people don't see how much psychoanalysis and strategy work goes into branding a country, and yet no alarm bells are heard.
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Who guessed that the guy living in a Middle Eastern dictatorship would be the first to respond about what a "real American" was and would attack patriotism? Did ATW win?
Patriotism deserves to be criticized - it's rarely used for anything legitimate. I'm not sure what it really accomplishes other than providing an unarguable yet empty reason for people to feel good/justified in their lives/actions. Mathloom used American examples because this is an American board (for the most part), but he's criticizing it in general. I agree with him. At any rate, I can only recall people using "real American" in an exclusionary sense - to say "anyone who believes/does [x] is not a real American."
And what's wrong with providing inspiration? To go beyond one's capabilities and do great things - you, so enlightened as you are, think it is foolish, but what about everyone else who doesn't? Democratic socialism certainly doesn't seek to inspire everyone, quite the opposite, as it seeks to subsume humanity, all of it, under the great morass of what they call "equality", inherently against human nature.
Yep there is a very thin line between patriotism and fanaticism. We use to see pictures of the USSR and all their red flags hanging everywhere. Then came 9/11 and guess what we saw, American flags hanging everywhere…just like the pictures from Russia. In trying to distinguish the two images I assume the communist state put up most of them while here in America, we ourselves bought, paid and installed the flags. I know I am assuming a bit on Russia's part but until I learn different that’s how I have looked at it. And I am a patriot and see nothing wrong in being so.
Real American means someone like me. Just like the "real world" means the world I live in. It does not matter if you are patriotic or live in a world that is real to you. If it is not my patriotism and my world, you are not real.
As usual, George sums it up nicely: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-OnWnwwxNPA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Language NSFW And just to set the record straight, Proverbs 16:18 actually says: "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."
Pride is one of, and some say the original and most serious of, the seven deadly sins. I can't say I have ever heard anyone use this term "Real American." I get the gist of your post, just haven't heard it put this way. "Dude are you a real American."... really? who says that? Having said that, I see little wrong with rational/measured patriotism, it's blind patriotism that is a problem. 1, I'm pretty sure Al Qaeda deserved to be attacked after 9/11. I'm no blind patriot, but they were responsible. 2, no one "totally forgot" to check for evidence. Evidence was misjudged/fabricated and presented, and many people did not agree with it. I can't tell you the amount of discussions and arguments I had with family and friends regarding whether taking the war to Iraq was legitimate or not. He did play the "with us or against us" card to bolster world support for the aggression, but not the way you imply. That was internationally, not domestically. Your point doesn't go ignored and I actually agree with most of what you posted, but the accoutrements are a bit much, and the brushes a bit too broad.
I'll wait for ATW's post, but a Muslim living under a ME dictatorship and a German debating American patriotism should be fun.
Arguably no one knows the wrath of American patriotism and Middle Eastern patriotism better than a person living under a ME dictatorship. Thanks for assuming I'm Muslim btw!
I didn't say Al Qaeda didn't deserve to be attacked. I said the mischaracterization of Al Qaeda as a group created to destroy America was used to attack a place where there was no evidence - not even fabricated - that Al Qaeda had a presence. If anything, the state of demise that Iraq was in post war opened up the door for Al Qaeda to establish some presence there. There were plenty of experts, albeit marginalized, who were well aware of the fabricated and misrepresented information re WMD's. They do not have access to any information that you don't. What they didn't have is patriotism - and that's precisely why people like Chomsky were accused of hating America, being a self- loathing Jew, etc. The very absence of patriotism allowed them to see a truth that others didn't, and they were attacked for it. For today's world, knowing what we all know, if you consider that watching tv and absorbing information put out there by MSNBC and FOX as "checking" then frankly I blame you. If I had the same type of sources and standards for fact checking (propagandist media and shallow scanning of news headlines), I would inversely support a war against America too. I know there were large protests prior to the Iraq war, but assuming what you guys always tell me is true - that your elected officials are representative of your people - then I assume the government either exceeded its authority or an insignificant amount of resistance was put up. In any case, the post-war reaction was undeniably and obscenely inadequate. This is not a description of all Americans, but it is a description of the majority of voting-age Americans at that time. The with/against was international. The "us" part is domestic. Opposing the war would = removing yourself from the "us" component hence making you against. I don't believe GWB has the mental capacity to come up with this type of sophisticated stuff, but rest assured the sentence is designed to isolate and then punish any opposition to what he had already decided would happen. Put it this way - a non-patriotic population is FAR less likely to be coaxed into an illegitimate war than a patriotic population. That's what I'm trying to say, even if I'm not saying it well.
