Are you patriotic? What does patriotism mean to you?
I was Born in a street, within a human-made political border, in a Nation built with violence on the Planet Earth.
When countries were young, disparate tribes spread across a land, greedy kings created the nation. The illusion of oneness of a people tied together by geography. Later they shared culture, language. Controlled under a yoke of oppression the people forced into a nation either died fighting back or succumbed to the force of will.
The nation state bought wars, changing the borders and the people governed. The nation state bought colonialism. The enslaving of other countries, stealing resources and people and shipping them across the world.
What is the point of patriotism?
That is like asking what the point in family is.
It is binding. A way of identification. Quite simply we are supposed to care more about those with the same identity than the rest of the planet.
Yet the most patriotic of us tend not to care about the rest of the nation. Politicians who call on patriotism are from the right. Either they want to fashion the country in their own image, or they want you to vote for them out of love for the country.
But that is not the love of the nation. For a nation is the people contained within the borders. Those who are heavily vocal about patriotism usually are referring to the institutions of the nation. The rule of law, the protection of borders, the maintenance of wealth are all more vital than the actual people who live on the land they claim is the nation. The preservation of these pillars is what patriotism is based upon.
Never mix the rule of law for justice. The two have become separated.
The new patriotism
Humankind, human civilization is getting closer to abandoning the nation state. For our own survival as a species, it may become essential.
Countries have no need to disappear. Even the governance of these countries has no need to disappear. Although those without a pure democracy will have to change. Not only those set up as monarchies, or theocracies, but even those who also claim democracy – the flawed ones – they currently run will also need change.
Humans need the freedom to choose. And that choice needs to more than just a financial one.
Perhaps that change will only come when climate change has wiped out billions of lives. Made great swathes of land around the equator uninhabitable during daylight hours. When sea waters rise and flood coastal regions and river basins. I am not a climate scientist, nor have I an interest to understand and analyse the data of predictions.
The best patriotism in the future will be the patriotism for earth. We have no more right to live on this planet than the dinosaurs had. Sure we understand it better, have built a wonderous civilization based on the knowledge we have gleaned from studying the planet. But if we use that knowledge to wipe out the ability for life to function what is the point?
Does our nation, our religion, politics matter?
It is time to put aside the petty differences for the whole to survive. It is time for the notion that the piece of land we are born within is the best country. Be proud of your nation for the right reasons. The best nation does not have the most billionaires, the biggest reserves of oil, the most liberal people, or just because some politician fills you with pride. The best nation loves their people and understands the nation is one on a globe of many.
Whether created by a God or evolved from a line of mammals the planet is ours. Which ever you believe there was never a country when it began. There was just the earth. The third rock in orbit around a star. Whether we are on it or not it will continue to orbit that sun. The land we once claimed ownership on, will repair and thrive once we are gone. We have nothing but each other, we are one humankind community.
We either save our ourselves and our future or we let the short-term greed get the better of us.
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