I AM NOT A PATRIOT

Dusk in Evanston. Across the street, teenagers are setting off bottle rockets. Just at the edge of hearing, someone is playing "God Bless America" on a stereo. On the internet, right-wing commentors are loudly trumpeting the superior patriotism of those who follow the Way of Bush, while left-winger are insisting that the true patriotism is to be found with those who question the direction our country is headed. Elsewhere, Americans are watching fireworks or dousing barbecues and finishing up picnics and brushing the potato chips off of red, white and blue t-shirts. They are all united in their love of country and pride of nation. Every man, woman and child is proud this night to be an American.

I do not share their love - I do not share their pride. On this day, I instead reflect upon the sick thing that this country has become and I despair. Yes, I come from the United States; but I cannot help it.

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" -Samuel Johnson

Two-hundred and thirty years ago on this day, a document was signed by the representatives of thirteen English colonies on the eastern coast of North America. In this document, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia wrote the most important words in the history of Western civilization: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." A government founded upon these principles would be the most perfect imaginable; a government which took as its guiding rule the right of all its citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness would stand as the beacon for reason and morality across the world.

The United States of America does not possess such a government. This nation is instead ruled according to the principle that Might makes Right; that the victor shall have the spoils; and it is ruled by men (and a precious few token women) who seek primarily to increase their own power and influence by providing a country where the wealthy and the privileged are given rights and freedoms at the expense of the disenfranchised.

The very notion of "patriotism" is odious to me. Blind fealty to any nation - any culture - any ideology - can only lead and has only led to stratification and division. To be a patriot is to wall oneself off from the whole of the world which does not belong, to create Others, and to adopt a feeling of superiority. "He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations." Pride in country leads inevitably to a believe that all other countries must be inferior, and this leads to the desire to conquer, to control and to build Empire.

Patriotism in this country, at this time, is no more indefensible than in England during the Victorian Age or Germany under the Third Reich - indeed, it is undoubtedly to be preferred by a great margin. But to be a patriot, to blindly cry "I love America!" in this decade is a mindless abdication of moral responsibility and good sense.

"It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind." -Voltaire

The United States has in the past been a force of greatness. It is because of this country that Nazi Germany was defeated. Americans have invented some of the greatest machines and tools in human history. In 1776, this became the first country in modern times, and still the longest-lived, to establish a representative governments. And it was in our Bill of Rights that the most important cornerstones of a free society - the right to free expression, the right to private safety, the right to trial by jury, among many others - were first codified and guaranteed.

But of late, we have not been a force for good in the world. Instead, our country's government has in the last few decades become a shameful and destructive entity, serving only its own accretion of power at the expense of the security and well-being of our people, our resources, and the world at large.

It is not least that the Bush Administration launched a war of aggresion against Iraq - the second-such war in our history - based on a shifting rationale of lies, threats and greed. Consider too that we alone of all First World nations refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty, thereby ensuring its failure in the world. Our country is alone in the industrial West supporting the death penalty.

And consider above all the slow yet inexorable stripping away of those very rights enshrined in the first ten amendments to our constitution, in the name of the phantom threat of terrorism. The people of this country have willingly given up freedom in the name of security.

"PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors." -Ambrose Bierce

I would be able to maintain some degree of hopeful patriotism if only I believed that our current crises were the result of temporary stresses. But this is not the case. The current failing of our country is the result of widespread ignorance in our populace. Leaders cannot use fear where people can think clearly, yet in America we see the constant use of fear to subjugate and control the many. Idleness and a desire for instant gratification have turned Americans into weak and foolish creatures, easily led and more easily lied to.

I am not a patriot because in America, we will spend $419.3 billion on defense and $29.3 billion on "homeland security," compared to $56 billion on education and $10.6 billion on the interior, of which an insulting $121.3 million was earmarked for the arts.

I am not a patriot because I live in a country that is torn apart by partisanship, a country in which any difference in opinion or belief is met not with debate and understanding, but with outright hatred on both sides.

I am not a patriot because the social agenda of this country is directed by a lunatic fringe of Christianity denounced by the great majority of Christians.

I am not a patriot because "freedom of religion" means wobbly freedom for Christians and some Jews, while Buddhists and Hindus and pagans are the objects of ridicule, and Muslims and atheists are the object of eliminationist rhetoric.

I am not a patriot because the legislators who dictate a woman's control over her reproductive system and her sexuality are old men.

I am not a patriot because the legislators who deny the right of non-heterosexuals to love and marry are heterosexual men.

I am not a patriot because the legislators who ignore the problems facing poor minorites, and refuse to enact any law to aid the disenfranchised, are white men.

I am not a patriot because the United States Senate has recently supported an initiative making English the official language of the country.

I am not a patriot because 12.4 percent (pdf) of all Americans live below the poverty line.

I am not a patriot because 15.7 percent of all Americans do not have health insurance.

I am not a patriot because our current system of taxation is designed to safeguard the wealthy while placing an undue burden on the poor.

I am not a patriot because our population is kept in perpetual ignorance by a news media which exists only to generate profit, and by a public education system that is underfunded to a point where it is not merely difficult to function, but whether it is functional at all is debatable.

I am not a patriot because 46 percent of Americans believe that God created mankind within the last 10,000 years, in contradiction to the most elemental and uncontroversial scientific observations of biology and geology.

I am not a patriot because the subject of global warming, on which there is 100% agreement in the climatological-scientific community, is considered an open debate by the media and the population at large.

I am not a patriot because it is not imaginable for a non-Christian to hold the office of president.

I am not a patriot because nearly all positions of power and influence are still held by old white men.

I am not a patriot because if I go anywhere in the world and announce, "I am an American," there is a risk of my being met with mockery, scorn, hostility or violence.

In times past, it was possible to brush off all of these concerns with a simple assurance that history will out, the Bushes of the world will get their due and good men will return to government. I do not believe this any longer. American democracy is broken when in 2000, the man who lost the election can be brought to power by a partisan court, and in 2004 that same man can win an election through threatening and disenfranchising portions of the electorate. We cannot vote our way out of this morass.

Nor I do not advocate revolution, for no revolution could succeed. In fact, I advocate nothing. America, once the most promising nation in the world, is dying. I do not know how long its death will take. Rome, the greatest empire in the history of the West, took nearly 400 years to die after it abandoned its democratic core. I suspect this, as everything else, will be a quicker process for the modern world.

"A Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about." -Mark Twain

Night in Evanston. I hear fireworks exploding over Lake Michigan, about a mile away. They are quite loud - I expect this is the finalé of the evening. I imagine it is very beautiful.

Happy Independence Day.