Posted on 07/01/2008 3:37:30 AM PDT by nikos1121
The Fourth of July is a patriotic holiday but patriotism has long been viewed with suspicion or disdain by many of the intelligentsia. As far back as 1793, prominent British writer William Godwin called patriotism "high-sounding nonsense."
Internationalism has long been a competitor with patriotism, especially among the intelligentsia. H.G. Wells advocated replacing the idea of duty to one's country with "the idea of cosmopolitan duty."
Perhaps nowhere was patriotism so downplayed or deplored than among intellectuals in the Western democracies in the two decades after the horrors of the First World War, fought under various nations' banners of patriotism.
In Britain, Winston Churchill warned that a country "cannot avoid war by dilating upon its horrors." In France, Marshal Philippe Petain, the victor at Verdun, warned in 1934 that teachers were trying to "raise our sons in ignorance of or in contempt of the fatherland."
But they were voices drowned out by the pacifist and internationalist rhetoric of the 1920s and 1930s.
Did it matter? Does patriotism matter?
Most Americans today are unaware of how much our schools have followed in the footsteps of the French schools of the 1920s and 1930s, or how much our intellectuals have become citizens of the world instead of American patriots.
Our media are busy verbally transforming American combat troops from heroes into victims, just as the French intelligentsia did-- with the added twist of calling this "supporting the troops."
Will that matter? Time will tell.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Add Obama's belief that our allegiance to "the world" supercedes our allegiance to our country.
Obama is dangerous. If there is anyone on this site who sees McCain as no different, then heaven help us.
We need to unite behind the republican candidates, like never before. We need to uncover Obama's current ploy, to move to the middle, and say anything to get elected and to avoid open and honest debate with McCain.
Supporting the defeat of your own country during a war is certainly not patriotic, by any definition.
True. But he supports the troops. They died in VAIN. They were victims rather than patriots....
Sowell's 100% correct on this. I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, and I can remember what almost seemed like a concerted shift towards an anti-American point of view in my textbooks and even the classroom teachers towards the end of the 1950s. The American educational establishment has always been influenced by the "progressivists" and the left, particularly since the time of Thomas Dewey, but this has really come to full flower in recent decades. The result is that kids know fewer facts and less real history, but have been fully indoctrinated in hatred for their own country and culture by the time they graduate from high school.
And yes, I agree, we've got to do all we can to make sure that Obama, our own personal Robert Mugabe, doesn't get elected. (I'm even going to volunteer for the local GOP!) I doubt that the country as we know it would last out his term.
That's because we kicked their tail in the war for Independence.
Good Morning!
Sowell ping.
He neglects to mention that both his parents chose to live away from the US, on the other side of the world.
His mother refused to think of Americans as "her people."
Not an auspicious beginning for a presidential candidate.
Yes. If there were no patriots there would be no America. Any and every politician wishing to be the Commander and Chief should have their patriotism scrutinized. It seems to me the Obamanation has many skeletons in his closet if he believes his patriotism, evidenced by his acts/beliefs, be explored and discussed. What a tool and the MSM on the evening news (CBS, NBC & ABC) played like one long campaign commercial for him yesterday...making every excuse for him, and just about condemning all that question the Obamanation's patriotism. I believe McCain would welcome a debate on patriotism and what it means...while the hypocrite tool Obama tries to hide from same. I guess that in itself shows you what this guy is all about.
His mother, as far as we know, hated her own race and was deeply anti American. His father and step father were Muslims.
I mean what more do we need to know about this clown, other than proof that he probably wasn’t even born in this country.
Unless the MSM starts to question this guy, he’s going to get a free pass. I think even O ‘ Reilly is going to be wrapped up in him..
Looking at those pictures and thinking ...
What would Obama do?
I watched the John Adams mini series a couple of months ago. Excellent series. It really gave me a new appreciation for our Founders and the sacrifices they had to make. I’m a conservative, but I don’t really know a lot about our American history so it was so nice to watch this series and get an idea of what things were like. I don’t know if I just wasn’t paying attention in school or if it just wasn’t taught, but somehow I made it through school back in the 70’s and 80’s without any (or very little) knowledge about our Constitution and the Founders (among many other things I’m sure). I think the mini-series should definitely be shown in the schools. Anyway, I’ll be looking at this Fourth of July with new eyes. I know Tom Hanks is a lib, but I’m so thankful that he helped produce such a project. I hope they do more.
“Kum-buy-yah', my Lord... kum-buy-yah'...”
The Leftmedia has a consistent policy of keeping pictures of 9/11 out of print and off the screen. They want us to forget. If the unwashed masses refuse to forget entirely, they have other weapons in their propaganda arsenal: the 9/11 “truther” movement, and the “Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11” tactic. It is not necessary for everyone to believe each idiotic lie; a few thousand fools here and there, and close states will swing their way in elections. After all, they’ve already gotten some useful idiots in the Libertarian camp to believe the truther paranoia. Liberaltarian votes could give us our first Marxist President.
There's truth... then there's the DBM.
Except in its National Socialist or fascist flavor, socialism/communism has always fancied itself as an international movement. Patriotism and religion are seen by them as “primitive” notions used to drug the proletariat and divert them from “progressive” causes.
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