Patriotism,National Interest and the People

PATRIOTISM, said Goethe, corrupts history. By this he meant that all over the world citizens are taught love of country, and this love of country distorts opinions and attitudes about what is best for country, best for people, best for world. We all tend to see the world through the "rose colored glasses" of nationalistic bias. My country is superior to other countries. Pledges of allegiance, national anthems, flag waving, rhetoric and propaganda are the tools of patriotic indoctrination; the educational system is the vehicle of indoctrination. It might have been in the best interest of the United States to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, but this expansion was most certainly not in the best interests of the natives, or the thousands of workers who suffered and died building the railroads which made that expansion possible. What if we eliminated all this, the national boundaries and exclusive love of country, at least in our minds, and began thinking of all children in the world as "our" children? WE could never drop bombs on anyone anywhere, because in our modern world, all wars are wars against children, our children. Patriotism tricks us into believing that there is such a thing as "national interest", which trumps and towers above all other considerations. In truth, individuals, and groups of individuals, classes, have very definite interests, which are often quite different from these supposed "national interests". For all the fifty five thousand American military people killed in Viet Nam, the Viet Nam war was not in their own best interests. Obamacare might be in the best interests of the poor, but it might not be in the best intersts of the insurance corporations, the pharmaceutical corporations, or the American Medical Association. When we teach history and patriotism in our school systems, we tend to emphasize national interests, and to omit mention of the intersts of those in poverty, those whose skin is not the right color, those who spend their lives working for their own meager survival, and the profit of a wealthy powerful few. National interest becomes the interests of the wealthy powerful few who own and operate the nation state, all nation states. Patriotism need not be a force of twisted attitudes and beliefs, but it usually is. Would it be better to teach children the truth about their country, about national defects as well as national achievements? We tend to love our children unconditionally, in spite of their mistakes and bad behavior. Surely we could learn to do the same with our country.