Patriotism and Freedom: One and the Same?
What comes to mind when we think of patriotism? Is it military service? Unwavering devotion to our flag and countrymen? Perhaps we imagine doing right by our nation, regardless of personal consequence. These may all be true, but what is commonly thought of is the ideology of freedom. Freedom is a word much like love - we all have our own personal definition - but, for the most part, we are able to agree on this: Freedom is the ability to live our lives as we wish, so long as we do not infringe on the freedoms or civil liberties of those around us.
The question is, though, are we not compromising our own freedoms and civil liberties when we engage in our new and distorted idea of patriotism? Is this, in truth, nationalism disguised in American flag pins, "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers, and "Let's Roll America" radio-jingles? The answer, I believe, is an absolute and resounding yes.
Presently, especially under the current administration, we often hear the talking heads of the mass-media outlets speaking about freedom from an economical standpoint. They talk about the dangers of socialism to our free-market system. They criticize government "bailouts" of businesses in the private sector. They remind us that a free nation like the U.S. needs to sustain this financial process in order to maintain our "freedom."
All the while, they promote government entities such as the military, the police, and international intelligence agencies. There seems to me, to be some sort of a syntax error between the masses. By touting a free-trade market as being the epitome of freedom, they are (whether intentionally or not) desensitizing us to the fact that our civil liberties are dwindling, and it is those said entities that are responsible for this loss of liberty.
We are thought to believe that taxation is proportionately linked to freedom while disregarding all the past and recent intrusions on our privacy and the profiling of entire demographics of people under the banner of freedom and protection. Yes, the people of this country enjoy the feeling of protection, whether it is the day-to-day protection of the police on the streets or the military protection of the homeland.
But it is an unfortunate fact that as we grow our government for the sake of our safety, we also shrink our freedoms as a whole and open ourselves up to a more discretionary police state.
Following World War II, America saw one of the most obvious and compelling examples for this argument with "McCarthyism". During the second Red Scare, thousands of law-abiding U.S. citizens were rounded up like cattle for various, unjustified reasons and interrogated due to the unsubstantiated, slandering accusations of Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy (1947-1957).
McCarthy had compiled a list containing various liberals and leftists and accused them of being "card-carrying Communists" and a danger to our free nation. These included college professors, notables in the media, artists, union activists and even homosexuals. The accused were investigated by government and private boards; the social stigma of simply being suspected of communist sympathy was devastating.
Many lost their jobs, some were jailed, families fell apart and lives were ruined. These flagrant abuses of liberty were, of course, done in the name of freedom. While many American citizens listened to and acted on the direction given by Senator McCarthy as "patriots", they were operating under a nationalistic premise and defeating the true definition of freedom.
Patriotism is an equally difficult term to ascribe an empirical definition to, but there needs to be a definitive line drawn between patriotism and nationalism. To give a basic differentiating definition of the two, patriotism is the belief that one's nation and people are good; nationalism is the belief that one's government makes a nation good.
Nationalism in practice often has catastrophic results. One must look only to Nazi Germany to see how a people's blind faith in their government's competence can spiral out of control. Nationalism is almost always linked directly to dictatorship, and as we fearfully enact our government to protect us at all costs. We enable these federal agencies to oppress us with unchecked discretionary power as seen in the Patriot Act.
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans felt that something, anything at all, needed to be done. But to date, the only infringements on our civil liberties have been set in place by our own government. This is a perfect example of patriotism turned nationalism and the repercussions suffered. As Albert Einstein once said, "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."
It is imperative that we as U.S. citizens, make this distinction before we are living under an Orwellian "Big Brother". Our nation was founded on freedom by all definitions, and patriotism used to mean standing up against tyranny, whether it be domestic or foreign, not giving in or living under it. We have to read between the lines of what the media feeds us and make our own choices about what freedom is and what civil liberties are necessary to us.
We also have to establish a balance between self-policing and federal protectionism. We cannot continue to be apathetic about our situation of dwindling rights or we will soon completely lose the liberty our forefathers had envisioned for this great nation. Benjamin Franklin put it most simply, "Those who would sacrifice liberties for security deserve neither."