Definitions:Patriotism: The quality of being patriotic, having devoted love/loyalty/pride to ones country.Irrational: Not logical or reasonablePride: A feeling of pleasure and satisfaction when you do something good.Militarism: The belief that a country should build up a large military so that a country is prepared to aggressively promote or defend national interests/beliefs. Being devoted to your country seems very logical to many people, some people/places actively encourage Patriotism as it brings people together who share the love for their country. However I believe that there are also dangers with patriotism. Patriotism can lead to a false sense of pride and the exclusion of others who are not one of them. In this essay I am going to explore the reasons why people think patriotism is a good thing and why patriotism is actually dangerous and irrational.Modern Patriotism is irrational because a person that is borninto a country was only born in that country by coincidence, they didnt chooseto be born in that country. Patriotism is also irrational because as everypatriot believes that their country is the best and only one can qualify as thebest country not all of them can be right. Its also immoral because everycountry has their interests in making their country better even at the downfallof others.However others say this argument is false because their defining of Patriotism is wrong. People say that patriotism has nothing to do with other countries and instead what they are describing is Nationalism. Nationalism is where you see your country as superior to other countries and this gives you an excuse to spread your countries beliefs forcefully. Nationalism is a bad thing because it leads to irrational blaming and discrimination akin to the Nazi rule1. Patriotism in the eyes of a patriotist is completely different to Nationalism as it is only about the love and devotion for your country and not the belief that it is superior to every other country. A true patriot would feel like they had to show extreme moral scrutiny for their country. A Patriotist sees their country as a work in progress and not a finished perfect place as a nationalist would.However the line between Patriotism and Nationalism is veryslim and most of the time Patriotism leads to Nationalism. For example the USAa very patriotic country displays characteristics of a Nationalist country. Ina poll made on June 5th 2008 by an American news site called Gallup3 they askedif racism against blacks was widespread in the US. The poll showed that theAmerican people, especially the black population, said that it was widespreadin America. One of the main reasons for this is that as they are a verypatriotic country it is harder for them to see where their country is goingwrong so they blame it on other groups. One common example of this isForeigners are taking our jobs. They see the unemployment crisis as the faultof the influx of foreigners not the country for not supplying enough jobs ormaking workers redundant. This blaming soon escalates to full blown nationalismand even in extreme cases Militarism. Patriots who are asked why do you love your country? willlist achievements and the virtues that the country have and not answer thequestion. However if another country had the exact same virtues andachievements most patriots would not show the same love of that country. Thismeans that the only reason they love their country is because its theircountry which is completely irrational as mentioned before and because they didnot choose to be born there and most probably had nothing to do with the growthof the country.However patriots would argue that they should be patrioticbecause as an individual they have had an effect on their country no matter howsmall and they have the right to call it their country. Some patriots even saythat they must be patriotic to understand the nation and its interests andalso to care about the country so that it can improve and expand. When someone criticizes a country you can see, especially onsocial media sites such as twitter, that patriotists attack and exclude thatperson even if it could help the country in question. This can also happen on alarger scale with Militarism. If a country or person criticises another country,in countries that are seen as very patriotic the people of said country willrace to defend their country and threaten the country that is accusing them. Ina militarist country where they are ready to use their army war can happenalmost spontaneously over just criticism or rivalry with other Patrioticcountries Another problem with Patriotism is that it gives people whoare patriotic a false sense of pride. When the US army win a war the UScitizens feel a false sense of pride even though they have not accomplishedanything. This feeling of pride is dangerous because it can give you a feelingof superiority over other people. It also leads to the reluctance of aperson/country to participate in critique and reform and the exclusion of anyone that that challenges the ideals of their country. This arrogance pushespeople away making Patriotism something that is supposed to bring peopletogether actually alienates them.In some places you can also get forced Patriotism where thepeople are forced to love their country and display complete loyalty to theircountry and/or leader. The problem with this is Patriotism cannot be forced6. You canforce people to sing the national anthem or salute the countrys flag andleader but you cannot change their opinions and beliefs towards the country andhow perfect it is so the forcing of Patriotism is completely irrational. Oneexample of forced Patriotism is North Korea where under the strict rule of KimJong-Un, their leader, the people have to be patriotic to North Korea orelse. In North Korea the punishments forhaving an opinion about the state of North Korea or not showing the patriotic characteristicsthat is forced upon them are incredibly severe. If you do something as simple asnot bowing in front of a leader of North Korea then they can implement theoverly strict three generations of punishment rule7. This rulesays that a person and the next two generations born in the camps can be sentto prison camps. This forced Patriotism is not working at all which you can seefrom the thousands of refugees trying to escape from North Korea every year.Patriotism and forced Patriotism clearly are not working to control or bringpeople together. Patriotism appears the most when a country is threatened byanother country. In World War 1 and World War 2 Patriotism was activelyencouraged by those in charge so they could justify to the people the reason toenter in to war and protect their country when war was upon them. They used propagandalike the Lord Kitchener recruitment poster to evoke patriotism and guilt inthose yet to enlist without straying as far as emotional blackmail8. Thiscaused a divide between the people of Brittan of those patriotic soldiers whosociety was accepting of and the people that hated their country and didntenlist to fight who were then rejected from society. However during World War 2 Hitler and the Nazi partyaggressively encouraged Patriotism on a country that was strugglingeconomically. Hitler, using Patriotism, made the people of Germany believe thatthe Germans as a race were superior to normal people and that the only reasonthey lost the last war and failed economically was that the Jews and Russianswere working together to make Germany fail. Hitler used their pride and passionwhich derived from their Patriotism to get his own way in invading the whole ofEurope. Other fascist leaders like Hitler take advantage of the rise ofPatriotism for their own plans. These leaders feed off the seemingly innocentlove for their country and turn it into insecurity for their country and hatefor other countries to promote themselves. Taking pride in the success of your country or the countryyou live in can be a good thing. Being pleased for and celebrating achievementsis acceptable and mostly harmless. For example we can all enjoy encouraging ourcompetitors in the Olympic Games. However Patriotism can easily become a badthing for instance when Hitler became outraged when watching Jesse Owens, ablack American, win 4 gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Germany (Berlin). HitlersPatriotism lead him and the people of Germany to see the Germans as a superiorrace which then lead him to invade other countries to make his countrystronger. So I think that Patriotism can only be rational in an ideal worldwhere patriots are able to take criticism from other countries and the leadersof other countries and do not use Patriotism as a weapon to get their own way. UntilPatriotism is this Patriotism is irrational.Bibliographyhttps://www.quora.com/Is-nationalism-good-or-bad http://news.gallup.com/poll/109258/majority-americans-say-racism-against-blacks-widespread.aspxhttps://youtu.be/k2tztxtyNdIhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/intimacy-path-toward-spirituality/201506/why-pride-is-nothing-be-proud https://www.quora.com/Is-forcing-patriotism-good-for-our-country http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/19/brutal-inhumane-laws-north-koreans-forced-live/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28642846 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/patriotism/ Get Help With Your AssignmentIf you need assistance with writing your assignment, our professional assignment writing service is here to help!Find out more
