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Lesson 19: Be a Patriot
“Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.”
Timothy Snyder, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons For the Twentieth Century,” 2017.
For the most part I’m going to present Dr. Snyder’s words in a different format to present this lesson on tyranny. The lists below are all his words. Let’s begin this lesson with the distinction between a patriot and a nationalist. If you’ve read the links, it might not be obvious to you what the difference is between the two.
I’ll refer back to Dr. Snyder. “The (most recent former) president is a nationalist, which is not at all the same thing as a patriot. A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tells us that we are the best.” As George Orwell puts it, A nationalist, “although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat (and) revenge (tends to be) uninterested in what happens in the real world.”
In Snyder’s words, “nationalism is relativist, since the only truth is the resentment we feel when we contemplate others.” Snyder further quotes novelist Danilo Kis who said nationalism “has no universal values, aesthetic or ethical.”
Herein lies the fundamental difference between nationalism and patriotism.
Snyder uses several examples of the most recent former president’s actions to make his point on what patriotism is NOT and I quote:
- It is not patriotic to dodge the draft and to mock war heroes and their families.
- It is not patriotic to discriminate against active-duty members of the armed forces in one’s companies, or to campaign to keep disabled veterans away from one’s property.
- It is not patriotic to compare one’s search for sexual partners in New York with the military service in Vietnam that one has dodged.
- It is not patriotic to avoid paying taxes, especially when American working families do pay.
- It is not patriotic to ask those working, taxpaying American families to finance one’s own presidential campaign, and then to spend their contributions in one’s own companies.
- It is not patriotic to admire foreign dictators.
- It is not patriotic to cultivate a relationship with Muammar Gadaffi or to say that Bashar Al-Assad and Vladimir Putin are superior leaders.
- It is not patriotic to call upon Russia to intervene in an American presidential election.
- It is not patriotic to cite Russian propaganda at rallies.
- It is not patriotic to share an advisor with Russian oligarchs.
- It is not patriotic to solicit foreign policy advice from someone who owns shares in a Russian energy company.
- It is not patriotic to read a foreign policy speech written by someone on the payroll of a Russian energy company.
- It is not patriotic to appoint a national security advisor who has taken money from a Russian propaganda organ.
- It is not patriotic to appoint as secretary of state and oilman with Russian financial interests who is the director of a Russian-American energy company and has received the “Order of Friendship” from Putin.
This may sound like Russia bashing, but the point is that patriots serve their own country.
So, what is a Patriot? In the words of Dr. Snyder:
- A patriot wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves.
- A patriot must be concerned with the real world, which is the only place where the country can be loved and sustained.
- A patriot has universal values, standards by which he (she) judges his (her) nation, always wishing it well–and wishing it would do better.
Democracy is fragile. The freedom that it espouses and celebrates can and has been used against it. Democracies failed in Europe in the 1920s,'30s and '40s. They are having a hard time now, right here in the Twenty First Century. According to Dr. Snyder, "A nationalist might say that it can't happen here, which is the first step towards disaster. A patriot says that it could happen here, but that we will stop it."
So, my take on why it is important to know the difference between a patriot and a nationalist is to understand the two words intention and reality. This takes me back to the words of George Orwell who wrote that a nationalist “although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat (and) revenge, tends to be “uninterested in what happens in the real world.”
Looking back (hopefully forever) at the actions of our most recent former president, there are numerous signs that his hold on power was rooted in a nationalist world view that could only be viewed as “great” unless it came out of a fantasy.
Surely the dark world of humorless racism, misogyny, hedonism, division and hatred cannot be considered as great. In order to accept this past as great, one has to accept not only a fantasy view of the world, but then to accept that it was great. That requires, in my mind at least, a great deal of misinformation and propaganda. For social, communal creatures like us Homo sapiens to become individualistic followers of those dark “isms,” we first must be removed from the real world that exists around us. Credit Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, NewsMax and One America Network for effectively spreading the propaganda necessary to create this fantasy world.
Surely the fantasy world of “Q” that was created to help establish the religious part of this fantasy world will be seen by even its most ardent followers for what it is. A fantasy world meant to distract us away from our true nature by a tyrant and tyrannical powers trying to separate people away from reality. The world of fantasy and conspiracy and not real. They are invented and are tools of the dark, by the dark and for the dark. The nationalist tyrants live in the darkness and benefit from the darkness.
But, my point here is not to dwell on the dark recent past, it is to celebrate patriotism. The patriot sees the world for what it is. The world is nuanced and imperfect. Yet, it is the one place where our country can be loved and defended, warts and all and the patriot recognizes that fact. The patriot has universally accepted values that seek to lift up and celebrate goodness, justice and equality. Our military heroes are often closely linked with patriotism and rightly so. They have been on the front lines, often paying the ultimate price to defend our liberty and freedoms. But, one does not to have served in the military to be seen as a patriot. Civilian patriots are all around you. The fact is, you are a patriot as well.
Celebrate patriotism, promote patriotism, and be a patriot.
Celebrate patriotism, promote patriotism and be a patriot.
Celebrate patriotism, promote patriotism and be a patriot.