For Memorial Day: on nationalism
[NOTE: This is a slightly edited version of an older post. It seems to me that it’s only become more relevant over time, rather than less.]
The story “The Man Without a Country” used to be standard reading matter for seventh graders. In fact, it was the first “real” book—as opposed to those tedious Dick and Jane readers—that I was assigned to read in school.
The plot was exciting compared to Dick and Jane and the rest, since it dealt with an actual story with some actual drama to it. It struck me as terribly sad—and unfair, too—that Philip Nolan was forced to wander the world, exiled, for one moment of cursing the United States. “The Man Without a Country” was the sort of paean to patriotism that I would guess is rarely or never assigned nowadays to students.
Patriotism has gotten a bad name during the last few decades.
I think part of this feeling began (at least in this country) with the Vietnam era and the influence of the left. But patriotism and nationalism seem to have been rejected by a large segment of Europeans even earlier, as a result of the devastation both sentiments were seen to have wrought on that continent during WWI and WWII. Of course, WWII in Europe was a result mainly of German nationalism run amok, but it seemed to have given nationalism as a whole a very bad name.
Here’s author Thomas Mann on the subject, writing in 1947 in the introduction to the American edition of Herman Hesse’s Demian:
If today, when national individualism lies dying, when no single problem can any longer be solved from a purely national point of view, when everything connected with the “fatherland” has become stifling provincialism and no spirit that does not represent the European tradition as a whole any longer merits consideration…
A strong statement of the post-WWII idea of nationalism as a dangerous force, mercifully dead or dying, to be replaced (hopefully) by a pan-national (or, rather, anational) Europeanism. Mann was a German exile from his own country who had learned to his bitter regret the excesses to which unbridled and amoral nationalism can lead. His was an understandable and common response at the time, one that many decades later helped lead to the formation of the EU. The waning but still relatively strong nationalism of the US is seen by those who agree with him as a relic of those dangerous days of nationalism gone mad without any curb of morality or consideration for others.
But the US is not Nazi Germany or anything like it, however much the far left may try to make that analogy. There’s a place for nationalism, and for love of country. Not a nationalism that ignores or tramples on human rights (like that of the Nazis), but one that embraces and strives for and tries to preserve them here and abroad, keeping in mind that—human nature being what it is—no nation on earth can be perfect or anywhere near perfect. The US is far from perfect, but it is a very good country nevertheless, always working to be better, with a nationalism that recognizes that sometimes liberty must be fought for, and that the struggle involves some sacrifice.
So, I’ll echo the verse that figured so prominently in “The Man Without a Country,” and say (corny, but true): …this is my own, my native land. And I’ll also echo Francis Scott Key and add: …the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Memorial day is when we remember those who have fallen in service to freedom and the American way. This video pays tribute to the Path of the Warrior. A fitting tribute to those who have given the last full measure of devotion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKqT0-3JV5E&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Celebrate that our nation has produced such warriors. Have a barbeque, be with family, but remember.
My time working in Latin America turned me into a flag-waver. Whatever the shortcomings of the USA, the common man got much fairer treatment here than in Latin America. For all our complaints about bureaucracy in the US, our government was much more competent and much less corrupt than governments I had experienced in Latin America. Though I suspect that in recent years, the distance between our government and government in Latin America has lessened.
Though I suspect that in recent years, the distance between our government and government in Latin America has lessened.
Gringo: I’ve often had the thought the Democrats’ real objective is to turn the US into Mexico with themselves as PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) — the corrupt party which has mostly run Mexico since the 1930s.
Huxley +1.
I remember seeing this made for tv adaptation of it as a kid and being moved. Looks like a burn from a vhs copy but watchable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sABO0-NgB70
Nationalism carried to the extreme can be dangerous. Ok. No argument. But, Thomas Mann doesn’t stop there does he?
Well, I wonder whether in retrospect he would be so enamored with the efficacy of governance by multi-national organizations?
One valid argument for nation-states is that they keep government closer to the governed. Clearly, Europeans are learning the value of that concept.
Michael Barone, always worth reading, believes this will all result in a “hard” Brexit in October.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/theresa-may-resigns-and-not-a-minute-too-soon
Oops, wrong thread. See the EU thread …
George Orwell made a distinction between patriotism and nationalism — from his 1945 essay, “Notes on Nationalism”:
I am still touched by the fact that Elizabeth II personally ordered the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner” at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace the day after 9/11. It is the only time another country’s national anthem has ever been played there outside of a state visit. I am sure that the Queen knows that Key wrote the words of our anthem during the War of 1812, our second (and happily last) armed conflict with the mother country– which makes her tribute all the more meaningful.
Here is a 6-minute video of the changing of the guard on that historic occasion. It begins with the entrance of the troops, so feel free to skip ahead to 2:17, when the band begins to play Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” and to 3:04, when they play the “Star Spangled Banner.” You can hear at least some people in the crowd singing along.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV_2P7Z7mOw&ab_channel=dragonweey
PA Cat, I’m touched but not surprised the Queen would order that.
Here’s a video of the King and Queen visiting the crew of the Memphis Belle after they completed their 25th mission.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-adk-adk_sbnt&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt&hspart=adk&p=king+and+queen+visit+crew+of+memphis+belle#id=1&vid=77e383bfb52a155989d49f9426762999&action=click
When I say they visited the crew, they visited the entire crew. Including the maintainers who, any aviator will tell you, are also flying the mission. I don’t know how it works in the Air Force but there’s a reason we in carrier aviation paint the plane captain’s name on the side of the aircraft. It’s his plane. And a wise pilot doesn’t abuse it. Or at least not when the plane captain can see it. Like in the carrier break.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz7dluAFXb0
I’ve been standing with more than one maintenance chief who walked away wincing when an over aggressive pilot came into the break. Even I, lowly intel officer, could hear the rivets popping. Invariably the plane captain would approach the maintenance chief and say, “Hey, look, I gotta fix that.” Then the maintenance chief would have a word with the pilot. It would be a very polite version of the scene in “The Godfather” when Sonny beat the stuffing out of Carlo, because nobody beats up Sonny’s sister. And the wise pilot takes it onboard because otherwise every time he takes off he has to wonder if the maintainers armed his ejection seat.
The air crew were presented in their dress uniforms. The maintainers I believe were kind of surprised and a bit embarrassed as they were in their fatigues. But the royals thought they looked just fine.
Hitler was a nationalist — Hitler was a socialist – Hitler supporters wanted a “dictatorship of the proletariat (workers)”.
The Left has successfully mislabeled Hitler as being on the right. He was a socialist. Socialists are against individualists.
The social Left, not the individualist Right, is where Hitler’s label belongs.
That truth is part of the Memorial Debt we, born after WW II, owe those many who died, and killed, in order to stop National Socialism.
It’s good, and patriotic, to see the differences in patriotism, nationalism, and excessive desire for power over others.
I’ve always considered American patriotism (or nationalism, as you will) to be of a different character from European nationalism. The American version, like the US itself, is based on commitment to a set of principles rather than on ethnic origin or length of residency.
Most Americans (not all, I know) don’t just welcome but celebrate the newcomer who came here for the same reasons our own ancestors came and who embraces the American passion for the rights of the individual, especially the right to try our hardest for a goal that matters to *us*. When that newcomer goes through the process to become a citizen, we applaud and cheer and make a hoopla, because that person might not have been born to us but we belong together now.
Patriotism is seen in a bad light because it’s seen as antiquated if not parochial, in the worst ways. It is seems as responsible for the wars in the ME. Modernism views (American) patriotism as a “far right” sorta of thing, picturing the uneducated, “white trash”, guns, Walmart and military (which also has its own smeared reputation). Patriotism is seen as a “white” thing, stating that America and its constitution was made for the “white man” – women weren’t. mentioned and blacks were slaves.
Modernism loathes America because it is not perfect. It views America’s “sins” (e.g. slavery, racism, sexism etc.) not as cardinal sins, but as mortal sins. If you hold this perspective why would anyone who isn’t white, male and straight be patriotic, hence bitterness to the American flag and to those who salute it. Modernism is “woke.” Patriotism is up there with the supposed patriarchy – to be slowly done away with; if not, for its definition and meaning to be changed e.g. it’s “patriotic” to be anti-American because you care so much; it’s “patriotic” to not believe in American exceptionalism because you see America for “what it truly is.”
Read this post for “President Calvin Coolidge’s address on Decoration Day (what we now call Memorial Day), on 30 May 1927.”
and the video of “Ronald Reagan’s Memorial Day address 35 years ago, on 28 May 1984. … laying a Congressional Medal of Honor at the foot of the flag-draped casket bearing the remains of an unknown soldier from Vietnam.”
https://libertyunyielding.com/2019/05/27/memorial-day-2019/
The story of the first transatlantic flight by Navy planes is also pretty cool.
“On this day 100 years ago, one of a small flight of Navy amphibious planes completed a transatlantic crossing. It had never been done before, and it took specially built Curtiss biplanes, more planes than would actually finish the trip (only one of three, NC-4, made it all the way), a string of picket ships across the Atlantic Ocean, and 19 days to do it.”