Page images
PDF
EPUB

PART FIVE

PATRIOTISM

CHAPTER XXV

AMERICA FIRST

WASHINGTON, in his Farewell Address, said to his countrymen: "Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections."

The American of today yields to no one in patriotism; certainly we make more noise about it than any other nation! The fact that we are a composite people, gathered here from many lands with mutually hostile traditions, has not worked to make us less united, or less loyal to this country of our birth or adoption. On the contrary, there is actually, beyond doubt, a greater spiritual homogeneity here than in most of those older lands. It is not common ancestry that makes national unity, it is common ideals, and common hopes. The Great War showed that men of all racial stocks were equally eager to give their money, their labor, and their lives to the national service. There are varying degrees of sympathy for, or hostility toward, the several nations of the old world; but for us all it is "America first."

There is, indeed, in some quarters, a distrust of this patriotic sentiment. Here and there a band of "internationalists" disavow it. A small group of pacifists, among them men of the highest motives, and a few leaders of distinction, speak of the nationalistic emotion as a primitive and dangerous passion, to be superseded by the boundaryless brotherhood of man.

And we must all recognize the force of their arguments. Patriotism often functions as a collective selfishness, more disastrous by far than individual selfishness. It easily degenerates into chauvinism, or, as we call it, jingoism, inspiring men with the lust of conquest, provoking jealousy and hatred of other nations, impeding the unification of mankind. If it were not for patriotism, it would be impossible to get the peoples to go to war with one another. And when we see the suffering and the ruin that war has brought to man, we may well ask if the value of patriotism can counterbalance this harm.

It

Even when patriotism is not truculent it isspeaking in nationalistic terms-self-centered. tends to ignore the achievements, to dislike the manners and morals of other peoples. It thinks of them as "foreigners," that is, as being essentially different from us, and prefers to believe that everything we do is better than what they do, that every opinion we hold is truer than theirs. Thus it tends to be provincial, to erect barriers that impede the free exchange of ideas and ideals, and to deprive each nation, to some extent, of what the other nations could contribute to its development.

When patriotism goes even farther in this direction and becomes "spread-eagleism," it is insufferable. The boastful American, bragging endlessly of his country's prosperity and power, curling his lips patronizingly at the lower buildings or slower trains or less comfortable hotels of some foreign land, and making it plain that he will be thankful to get back to "God's own country," brings us into serious disrepute. As a matter of fact, while our civilization is in some respects superior to that of most other countries, it is in other respects inferior; we have much

L

L

to learn as well as much to teach. And the complacent self-satisfaction of the unmannerly tourist is one of the developments of our national life of which we have least reason to be proud.

Even worse is the bigotry that, parading under the cloak of patriotism, seeks to stamp out all criticism of our contemporary institutions or of the policies of the party in power, on the ground that such criticism is "unpatriotic." During a time of war this intolerance of minority opinions is less inexcusable; the successful prosecution of the war may require a temporary willingness to submerge differences and unite on the policy that approves itself to the majority. But even then, the suppression of criticism is highly dangerous. Administrations commit serious blunders for the lack of the light that such criticism might have shed. And since even a democracy may be led into an unrighteous or inexpedient war, the right to discuss the whole matter with perfect freedom is of the utmost importance. It takes courage to maintain unpopular opinions, it takes individuality to think up new ideas; such courage and individuality are among our best assets, and should be encouraged rather than repressed. We are far too apt to swing with the tide, to be carried off our feet by a wave of popular feeling, or to stick in the rut of unthinking habit. Men who differ from the majority by no means always do so from selfish or traitorous motives; on the contrary, they may be actuated by ideals far higher than those of their persecutors.

Mr. Gilbert Chesterton recently wrote, “I have passed the great part of my life in criticizing and condemning the existing rulers and institutions of my country: I think it is infinitely the most patriotic thing that a man can do." The real anti-patriots

« PreviousContinue »