{"id":2638,"date":"2013-04-14T12:29:09","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T17:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2013-04-14T12:29:09","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T17:29:09","slug":"patriotism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/general\/patriotism\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriotism."},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Patriotism: a word of place in a placeless, single world. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/thought?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#thought<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; C.G.Ayling (@CGAyling) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CGAyling\/status\/323222414861406209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 13, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h6>Patriotism: a word of place in a placeless, single world. #thought<\/h6>\n<p>Patriotism, and Duty.\u00a0 Honorable sounding words, for dishonorable deeds.<\/p>\n<p>Time passes, and things change\u2026 well, most things change, while some remain the same. The words I\u2019ve named above fall within the \u201cunchanging\u201d category, and while they bear honor\u2019s guise, it is a shabby fit at best.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s consider them in sequence, but at first apart for that ancient phrase \u201c<strong><em>United they stand, divided they fall<\/em><\/strong>\u201d holds true. \u00a0Sweet it is, and fitting, to tear apart falsity wrapped as truth \u2013 especially using one of the very quotes so often used to justify one of man\u2019s most immoral acts. Namely, war. {For those that care, and I hope you all do, that is a modified translation of another ancient lie, attributed to Horace, \u201c<strong><em>Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori<\/em><\/strong>\u201d.}<\/p>\n<p>The world remains the same size it was a millennium ago, yet distances have shrunk even as humanity has experienced a population explosion.\u00a0 Technologically, mankind has advanced rapidly.\u00a0 Intellectually, humankind remains stuck in a single spot.\u00a0 Spiritually, humanity has lost ground \u2013 we\u2019ve forgotten things we once knew, and grown convinced they don\u2019t matter&#8230; when they do.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re all primitive people, easily manipulated, easily distracted from truth, and voracious in our appetites.\u00a0 What do you suspect happens when such greedy primitive beings as we, intellectually incapable of overcoming our tribal instincts to gain more than our needs, acquire terrible technologies?<\/p>\n<p>War\u2026 on an even greater scale than before.<\/p>\n<p>Justification and motivation for war is accomplished using deceitful words held high, as truths.\u00a0 Everyone wants to be a patriot, don\u2019t they \u2013 yet do we even know what a patriot is?\u00a0 The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a patriot as \u201c<strong><em>a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 What powerful, eloquent, inspiring words \u2013 for an archaic, defunct set of primitive, tribal beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>Like <a href=\"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/2012\/12\/marriage-a-words-meaning\/\">marriage<\/a>, perhaps it\u2019s past time we redefined this word in terms more suitable for today.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t a patriot, in essence, someone who loves their country?<\/p>\n<p>If we love our country {whatever country that may be}, there is no explicit need for us to \u201c<strong><em>support<\/em><\/strong>\u201d it \u2013 our love guarantees implicit support.\u00a0 Only when our country engages in something dishonorable is explicit support demanded \u2013 at which time all that truly love their country {AKA \u201cpatriots\u201d} should actively strive to set their country back on the honorable path.<\/p>\n<p>Further, what need is there for \u201c<strong><em>defends<\/em><\/strong>\u201d in the definition of patriotism?\u00a0 Last I considered this, there is no need for defense if there is no attack.\u00a0 {Unless you\u2019re foolish enough to embrace the idiotic concept of \u201c<strong><em>pre-emptive self-defense<\/em><\/strong>\u201d}\u00a0 Are misguided patriots not the ones dishonorable leaders would use in their attacks?<\/p>\n<p>Is aggression the ultimate aspiration of patriots, as that word is currently defined?\u00a0 It seems so, and neither is aggression an honorable activity.<\/p>\n<p>Duty\u2026 I\u2019ll leave you to think on the circumstances in which duty is invoked, and possibly tackle that topic on another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patriotism: a word of place in a placeless, single world. #thought Patriotism, and Duty.\u00a0 Honorable sounding words, for dishonorable deeds. Time passes, and things change\u2026 well, most things change, while some remain the same. The words I\u2019ve named above fall within the \u201cunchanging\u201d category, and while they bear honor\u2019s guise, it is a shabby fit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[130,196,303,304],"class_list":["post-2638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-duty","tag-honor","tag-patriotic","tag-patriotism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}