24 July 2008
Dear Moderator(s): Please consider posting the following in an appropriate column in MM. Thanks and regards. Mohammad Gani (USA).
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When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." - Dom Helder Camara.
Patriotism: Love or Rhetoric?
Mohammad Gani (USA)
It is all about love, economics and equations of politics together! Yesterday, I went to watch an "Indian movie" with my charming wife (sorry but I must say that!!) of last 27 years. India is always in my heart, in mind as our "good and friendly" neighbor but honestly, I hate Indian movies (except all its beautiful ladies!) those have been destroying the "beauty" of our Bangladeshi movie business. I was sitting next to the isle seat, starring my eyes directly at the huge screen but was yawning deeply, rubbing my eyes and battling to stay awake. 15 minutes later, I fell into sleep. No, it was not any symptom of "love of diminishing returns", or ingenuous love; probably I am becoming tired of watching movie these days unlike during those "Bold and beautiful" days when was "Young and Restless"! Keeping this aside, how and what about my true love for Bangladesh? Almost 26+ years here in USA where I have been living, nourishing my mind and body, managing family, raising children, bought properties and plan to retire etc, are the facts of life. How much love (Patriotism) should I need to have evenly or unevenly for these two lands of mine; my new homeland USA and my motherland Bangladesh, a land with millions of sweet memories of childhood, boyhood and youth?
Over a long period of time, due to various social circumstances like economical, racial and religious reasons our world and its people were divided into countries and call one of them of our own. It is nothing but a natural course that our human civilization has taken over time. But is there any moral (and legal) basis behind drawing such boundaries and then forcing people to love their territory to become patriots? No, I am not a libertine and it is not my occult intention to quarrel with the concepts of States and/or nations at this point rather only to look through the absolute "definition of Patriotism" at large. I wish I were a physician and a member of "Doctors without borders". One accidentally or coincidentally born in a country and thus is supposed to like, love and accept everything of it? I have never chosen to born in Bangladesh but am supposed to feel proud and great about it irrespective of it's past deeds, present stance or future intentions of all its elected Governments. Isn't patriotism invading our freedom of choice and rights?
Well, I could voluntarily choose to love my country and feel proud of it (and I surely do) but that doesn't make a person who chooses not to, is a traitor or a person of lower moral standing. Has a person any moral right to refuse recognizing the existence of a country, it's laws and it's citizens rights of ownership? It is indeed a debatable issue but one must have the strength and pluck to do so and could still survive in his world.
Patriotism makes "our world" divided into little territories, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular territories consider themselves nobler, better, grander and more intelligent than those living other disadvantaged territories. Patriotism is our conviction that my country is superior to all others because I was born in it. It is, therefore, my duty to fight, kill and die in the attempt to maintain my superiority upon all the others. So, here we see conceit, arrogance and egotism as the actual elements of patriotism. In the name of patriotism, the people with the lessons learnt throughout an early childhood/boyhood mind bear deeply rooted superiority over the people of "other" territory. When the child has reached manhood, he is thoroughly saturated with those beliefs that he is chosen by the God Himself to defend his country against the attack or invasion of any foreigner. It is for that purpose, we are clamoring for the superior weapon systems in our powerful defense force to attack basic humanity all over our world in the name of protecting our land. Some philosophers say, patriotism is by most part rhetoric of ruling class in courting and securing their public power and/or dominance.
Patriotism has also connotations of self-sacrifice, implying that the individual should place the interests of the nation and common good of its political community above their personal and group interests. It is an unconditional loyalty to our country and we must support our country no matter what the espousing ideology could be, right or wrong!
Our intelligence and self-interest combine to make us a most unruly creature of nature. The prevalence of the lust for power, authority and prestige has led us to some speculation that we have instinct for it. These slow processes over thousands of years helped developing a special system of patriotism that also established inequality among the creation of God. These inequalities have been justified by creation of State, democracy and "freedom" over natural humanity. No Democracy has given a nation absolute freedom even in a non-State society. To make us patriotic citizens, Democracy or State forces us to obey its law against our will or freedom. In a sense, greed for power has given the concept of patriotism and humanity has always questioned the legitimacy and enforcement of these laws on its citizen.
Resort to religions is also found as common strut in many nations, even in a secular society. Using religion as a tool, brutal Pakistani dictators committed whole sale atrocities and killings in 1971 to continue occupation of our territory. Here in US. "In God we Trust" is emblazoned on our money and we even pledge allegiance to "One nation under God". Our patriotism is questionable if we do not obey these rules? Religions", patriotism and a "democracy" often could go hand to hand too. For example, God watches over us in a war and He helps us to victory. Does God take side in politics and or/war? Nevertheless, it is a part of contemporary "secular religion" in a secular/democratic State with no mention of humanity. In the modern world, patriotism is closely associated with nationalism and nationalism refers more to ideology and to political movements; and patriotism thus more to attitudes. Both of them may include negative attitudes to other people's territory.
The greatness in patriotism is that a patriot who dies in the belief that the whole country is glad he died for his country's cause but in fact nobody really is bothered by his death except his family members after a period of time. Do we have special obligations to some prolix ruling groups or representatives simply by virtue of common membership in a nation state? If so, how is this different from special obligations to some groups by virtue of a common race, or to a common religion? Does the unquestioned utility of shared national institutions require special sentiment "patriotism" to hold it all together? Would our institutions be more effective if we were more patriotic? Patriotism is surely useful for creating the solidarity needed to defend against an external enemy. But aren't our potential enemies patriotic too? If we need patriotism for defense against patriotism on the offense, what does it exactly mean to the human race and to the humanity at large?
There is nothing much noble about patriotism. However, it indeed helps countries to exist and survive. Existence of countries may help the world to exist in orderly fashion. But there is no "absolute morality" behind patriotism. "Patriotism is the last resort of scoundrels," said Dr. Samuel Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our time, defines "patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment in the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities as shoes, clothing and houses etc".
Hubris in loving or caring a country just because it is our territory doesn't seem very reasonable to modern political philosophy and civilization. We see too much of propaganda on patriotism in many countries where people are carried away thinking that it is a sign of good character or integrity to love one's own country unconditionally. Actually it is only a sign of weakness. There is nothing so great about patriotism, nothing great about nationalism; all these are divisive, hateful and furtive political teachings to create division and hatred among the best creation of God and against the common humanity to the entire mankind.
Mohammad Gani
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
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