Being Less Patriotic, At Long Last

ACCORDING TO a new Gallup Poll poll, for the first time in recorded history, less than fifty percent of us the American people self identify as "extremely patriotic". Could it be that patriotism as a civic virtue and cultural phenomenon and emotion, like religion, is finally beginning a slow descent into history's dustbin? "patriotism Corrupts History" said Goethe (1749-1832) by which he may have meant that strong, widespread patriotism is an irrational emotion which causes people to behave violently, aggressively, and destructively, and to justify doing so, in the name of national pride. patriotic displays are an easy way of impressing one's countrymen, winning friends, influencing people. rarely does patriotism need to be proven. Or maybe he meant that as history is written, preserved, taught, and amended, those who do so patriotically, distort it by filling it with unsubstantiated justifications and explanations. Your guess is as good as mine. Globalism might replace nationalistic patriotism with some new sort of planetary patriotism. Like President Reagan said, if the human species were confronted with a threat from an extraterrestrial species, you'd see the entire human race united quicker than a hiccup, and that's quick. but in teh absence of any such external threat, our best hope of transcending fervent nationalism is to unite the species around a common goal, like, say, reversing man made climate change. it would keep us all off the streets, and out of trouble. Not to mention that climate change is a very real threat, indeed more than a threat, because if we do not indeed unite to reverse it, we are all, as they say, toast.