What Is a Real Patriot?

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At LewRockwell.com, Gary Barnett takes a critical view of what most people call a “patriot” and explains his own view of the word’s real meaning. He writes:

“Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.”

~ Arundhati Roy

Ah, nationalism and patriotism, the scourge of all mankind. Just the thought of these terms brings to mind a telling song by John Prine; “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore.” I have long considered the heinous nature of nationalism and patriotism an afront to all things good in life; merely excuses for hate, hypocrisy, gross arrogance, and committing atrocities against innocents on a massive scale. Most country’s peoples tend to think well of themselves, a natural phenomenon, and in many cases, they think they are the best, but no country’s population on earth has ever taken this position to any such obscene extreme exceeding that of the people of the United States of America. This insane position consumes many if not most in this country today, even though this is a time of hating any traditional history or moral structure ever to exist. They believe this simply because they are here by an accident of birth, and nothing more. This useless attitude has brought nothing but brutality, massacre, aggressive war, and the slaughter and murder of others around the world, and left this country and the rest of humanity much worse off than imagined.

No one can even define what it means to “love a country” or “hate a country,” mainly because it means nothing. When the rulership uses these terms, it is meant as a trick to fool the people into supporting the State and its governing forces. When the common dolts use these terms, it means a support for all that government does right or wrong, but since governments cannot do right, it really means that the people who claim to be patriots and nationalists support most all government action that is heinous and wrong. This is the essence of horrific nationalism, and the antithesis of independence and freedom. This is why those who claim to be patriots and nationalists, usually have no clue as to what they speak.

Before some of you have a cow, let me clarify a few things. First, I have rarely, if ever, heard any say “I love my country,” who were simply referring to nature, the landscape, or the societal herd. It is almost always said as a political statement, and in many cases, it is in direct relation to support for aggressive war, or egotistical exceptionalism, neither of which are legitimate. In addition, these terms are used as weapons against any who do not toe the line of worship for the State and all the evil it does in the name of its captive ‘citizens.’ There are even firm rules as to how the blood-soaked cloth called the ‘flag,’ must be treated and respected, as if it were a living being instead of a hideous symbol of a nation-state and its totalitarian government. These vile terms also indicate that one must support without question, the brutal escapades of the murderous military, who will kill anything or anybody on orders from the State and its military heads running the war machine.

Every single American should know, but they do not, that any real ‘patriot’ would negate, disobey, dissent, fight against the State and its government, and never blindly support it. No real ‘patriot,’ would ever kill anyone on orders, and would only use force for actual self-defense, not to prop up the State’s power, and fill the coffers of the profiteers of war. In my case, I would never support any State, government, any governing entity of any kind, any war, or any rule for any reason. I guess that would make me the ultimate ‘patriot,’ but I so abhor that label. The mere mention of it turns my stomach because it is so misunderstood and mis-used.

Read more here.