Patriotism#Cultural aspects

File:Patriotism by Francisco Pérez del Valle (Madrid) 01.jpg of patriotism in the Monument to the Fallen for Spain in Madrid (1840), by sculptor Francisco Pérez del Valle]]

Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, political, or historical aspects. It may encompass a set of concepts closely related to nationalism, mostly civic nationalism and sometimes cultural nationalism.{{cite book |author=Harvey Chisick |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000chis |title=Historical Dictionary of the Enlightenment |date=2005-02-10 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810865488 |pages=313-314 |access-date=2013-11-03 |url-access=registration}}{{page needed|date=August 2023}}{{multiref2

|1={{cite web|url= https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nationalism/ |title= Nationalism |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|date=2020-09-02|first=Nenad|last=Miscevic |access-date= 2013-11-03}}

|2={{cite web|url= https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/patriotism/ |title= Patriotism |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=2020-12-16 |first=Igor|last=Primoratz|access-date= 2013-11-03}} }}

Terminology and usage

An excess of patriotism is called chauvinism; another related term is jingoism.

The English word "patriot" derived from "compatriot", in the 1590s, from Middle French {{lang|frm|patriote}} in the 15th century. The French word's {{lang|fr|compatriote}} and {{lang|fr|patriote}} originated directly from Late Latin {{lang|la|patriota}} "fellow-countryman" in the 6th century. From Greek {{transliteration|grc|patriotes}} "fellow countryman", from {{transliteration|grc|patrios}} "of one's fathers", {{transliteration|grc|patris}} "fatherland". The term patriot was "applied to barbarians who were perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive and who had only a common Patris or fatherland." The original European meaning of patriots applied to anyone who was a fellow countryman regardless of the socio-economic status.{{Cite journal |last=Kemiläinen |first=Aira |year=1989 |title=The idea of patriotism during the first years of the French Revolution |journal=History of European Ideas |volume=11 |issue=1–6 |pages=11–19 |doi=10.1016/0191-6599(89)90193-9}}

The use of patriotism and nationalism originally shared a similar meaning in the 19th century, but their use and connotation gradually grew apart. The Merriam-Webster defines patriotism as "love for or devotion to one’s country", whereas nationalism is defined as "loyalty and devotion to a nation".{{Definition needed|date=January 2025|reason=There is one word difference between these things and the distinction is not adequately explained}} Today, nationalism has gained a more negative connotation.{{Cite web |title=The Difference Between 'Patriotism' and 'Nationalism' |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/patriotism-vs-nationalism |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}{{Citation |last=Primoratz |first=Igor |title=Patriotism |date=2020 |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/patriotism/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |edition=Winter 2020 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University}} In contrast, patriotism is used to refer to genuine pride in one's nation, recognizing both its merits and flaws.{{Cite news |title=Patriotism vs Jingoism |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/socialsciences/patriotism-vs-jingoism-56216/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}{{Cite web |last=Rogers |first=Rev David Wilson |title=Patriotism vs. nationalism |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/faith/2017/07/01/patriotism-vs-nationalism/443671001/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}} A similar distinction between the terms was also upheld by George Orwell, whose essay Notes on Nationalism, distinguished patriotism from the related concept of nationalism:

By 'patriotism' I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.{{cite book|last=Orwell|first=George|chapter=Notes on Nationalism|title=Essays|year=1994|publisher=Penguin|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/penguinessaysofg0000orwe|url-access=registration|pages=[https://archive.org/details/penguinessaysofg0000orwe/page/300/mode/2up 300–301]|isbn=9780140188035 }}

History

File:Paul Stahr - Be Patriotic, Sign your Country's Pledge to Save the Food.jpg during World War I]]

File:I Want You for U.S. Army by James Montgomery Flagg.jpg recruitment poster (1917)]]

The notions of civic virtue and group dedication can be found in cultures globally throughout history.{{Cite web |title=Patriotism – 401 Words |url=https://www.studymode.com/essays/Patriotism-55662260.html|url-access=subscription |access-date=2023-02-06 |website=Studymode}}{{better source needed|date=July 2023}} For Enlightenment thinkers of 18th-century Europe, loyalty to the state was chiefly considered in contrast to loyalty to the Church. It was argued that clerics should not be allowed to teach in public schools since their {{lang|fr|patrie}} was heaven, so they could not inspire a love of the homeland in their students. One of the most influential proponents of this notion of patriotism was Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Enlightenment thinkers also criticized what they saw as the excess of patriotism. In 1774, Samuel Johnson published The Patriot, a critique of what he viewed as false patriotism. On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made the famous statement, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel".{{Citation|last=Boswell|first=James|author-link=James Boswell|title=The Life of Samuel Johnson|title-link=Life of Samuel Johnson|year=1791|publisher=The Modern Library|location=New York|isbn=|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.262597/page/n540/mode/1up 525]}} James Boswell, who reported this comment in his Life of Johnson, does not provide context for the quote, and it has therefore been argued that Johnson was in fact attacking a false use of "patriotism" by contemporaries such as John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (the patriot-minister) and his supporters; Johnson spoke elsewhere in favor of what he considered "true" patriotism.{{Citation|last=Griffin|first=Dustin|title=Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2005|isbn=978-0-521-00959-1}} However, there is no direct evidence to contradict the widely held belief that Johnson's famous remark was a criticism of patriotism itself.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Cultural aspects

Many patriotic people take pride in sharing a distinct, common culture, believing it to be central to their national identity and unity. Many are devoted to the preservation of their traditional culture and encourage cultural assimilation by people from other cultures. However, some of the more civic forms of patriotism tend to de-emphasize ethnic culture in favor of a shared political culture.{{multiref2

|1={{cite encyclopedia |title=Patriotism |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |last=Baumeister |first=Andrea |date=4 July 2023 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |location=United States |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/patriotism-sociology }}

|2={{cite journal |last=Schmidt |first=Royal J. |year=1956 |title=Cultural Nationalism in Herder |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=407–417 |doi=10.2307/2707552|jstor=2707552 }} }}

Philosophical issues

Patriotism may be strengthened by adherence to a national religion (a civil religion or even a theocracy). This is the opposite of the separation of church and state demanded by the Enlightenment thinkers who saw patriotism and faith as similar and opposed forces. Michael Billig and Jean Bethke Elshtain both argued that the difference between patriotism and faith is difficult to discern and relies largely on the attitude of the one doing the labeling.{{cite book|last=Billig|first=Michael|title=Banal Nationalism|title-link=Banal Nationalism|location=London|publisher=Sage Publishers|year=1995|pages=56–58}}

Christopher Heath Wellman, professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, says a popular view of the "patriotist" position is robust obligations to compatriots and only minimal samaritan responsibilities to foreigners.{{Cite book|title=Liberal Rights and Responsibilities: Essays on Citizenship and Sovereignty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sco4AAAAQBAJ|url-access=limited|first=Christopher Heath|last=Wellman|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year=2014|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Sco4AAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA32 32], [https://books.google.com/books?id=Sco4AAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA50 50]|isbn=9780199982189}} Wellman calls this position "patriotist" rather than "nationalist" to single out the members of territorial, political units rather than cultural groups.

= Opposition =

Voltaire stated that "It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind."{{cite book|author=Voltaire|chapter=Country|title=A Philosophical Dictionary|title-link=Dictionnaire philosophique|volume=II|year=1824|orig-year=1764|location=London|publisher=John & H.L. Hunt|page=327}} Arthur Schopenhauer wrote that "The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which a person can be proud."{{cite book|last=Schopenhauer|first=Arthur|chapter=The Wisdom of Life|title=The Wisdom of Life, and Other Essays|location=London|publisher=M. Walter Dunne|translator-first1=Bailey|translator-last1=Saunders|translator-first2=Ernest Belfort|translator-last2=Bax|series=Universal Classics Library|orig-year=1851|year=1901|url=https://archive.org/details/wisdomoflife0000scho|url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/wisdomoflife0000scho/page/n22/mode/1up|chapter-url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/wisdomoflife0000scho/page/52/mode/1up 52]}}

Kōtoku Shūsui, a famous Japanese anarchist of the late 19th/early 20th century, devoted a large section of his widely read Imperialism, Monster of the Twentieth Century to a condemnation of patriotism.{{cite book|translator-last=Tierney|translator-first=Robert|title=Imperialism: Monster of the Twentieth Century|first=Shūsui|last=Kōtoku|year=1901|url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/shusui-kotoku-imperialism}}{{rp|5}} One of the many arguments is based on the Confucian value of empathy: "I am as convinced as Mencius that any man would rush without hesitation to rescue a child who was about to fall into a well... A human being moved by such selfless love and charity does not pause to think whether the child is a family member or a close relative. When he rescues the child from danger, he does not even ask himself whether the child is his own or belongs to another."{{r|Tierney|page=143}} Patriotism is used to dehumanize others whom we would naturally have empathy for. He argues, "[P]atriotism is a discriminating and arbitrary sentiment confined to those who belong to a single nation-state or live together within common national borders",{{r|Tierney|page=59}} a sentiment cultivated and used by militarists in their drive for war.

Marxists have taken various stances regarding patriotism. On one hand, Karl Marx famously stated that "The working men have no country"{{cite book|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm |title=Manifesto of the Communist Party|year=1848|chapter=II. Proletarians and Communists |publisher=Marxists.org |access-date=2013-11-03}} and that "the supremacy of the proletariat will cause [national differences] to vanish still faster." The same view is promoted by present-day Trotskyists such as Alan Woods, who is "in favor of tearing down all frontiers and creating a socialist world commonwealth."{{cite web|title=Alan Woods outlines the resistance to capitalism at Montreal's Concordia University|first=Isa|last=Al-Jaza'iri|date=2 November 2012|url=https://www.marxist.com/alan-woods-talks-at-concordia-u-montreal.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210133415/http://www.marxist.com/alan-woods-talks-at-concordia-u-montreal.htm|archive-date=December 10, 2014|website=In Defence of Marxism}} On the other hand, Marxist-Leninists and Maoists are usually in favor of socialist patriotism based on the theory of socialism in one country.{{cite book|last=Motyl|first=Alexander J.|author-link=Alexander J. Motyl|title=Encyclopedia of Nationalism, Volume II|year=2001|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-227230-1}}{{page needed|date=August 2023}}

Against primordial arguments in favour of national patriotism, Eric Hobsbawm wrote that such a concept was - for most of human history - "so remote from the real experience of most human beings".{{Cite book |last=Hobsbawm |first=Eric | title=Nations and nationalism since 1780 |edition=2nd |year=1992 |page=46}}

Anarchists oppose patriotism.{{Cite book |last1=Primoratz |first1=Igor |title=Philosophical and Political Perspectives |last2=Pavkovic |first2=Aleksandar |editor-first1=Aleksandar |editor-last1=Pavkovic |year=2016 |doi=10.4324/9781315599724|isbn=9781317083177 }} This was exemplified by Emma Goldman, who stated:

Indeed, conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider themselves better, nobler, grander, and more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living in that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in an attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.{{Cite web |last=Goldman|first=Emma|title=Patriotism: a menace to liberty |year=1917|url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-patriotism-a-menace-to-liberty |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}

=Region-specific issues=

In the European Union, thinkers such as Jürgen Habermas have advocated a "Euro-patriotism", but patriotism in Europe is usually directed at the nation-state and more often than not coincides with "Euroscepticism".{{cite magazine |last1=Grygiel |first1=Jakub |title=The Return of Europe's Nation-States |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/return-europes-nation-states|url-access=subscription |website=Foreign Affairs Magazine |date=3 October 2016 |publisher=Hein Company |access-date=January 14, 2021}}

Surveys

Several surveys have tried to measure patriotism, such as the Correlates of War project which found some correlation between war propensity and patriotism. The results from different studies are time-dependent. For example, according to the project, patriotism in Germany before World War I ranked at or near the top {{Compared to?|date=July 2023}}. According to a study by the Identity Foundation, 60% of Germans were proud of their country in 2009.{{Cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005112907/http://www.identity-foundation.de/images/stories/downloads/Studie_Deutsch-Sein_final_klein.pdf | title=Deutsch-Sein – Ein neuer Stolz auf die Nation im Einklang mit dem Herzen | language=de | trans-title=Being German – A new pride in the nation in harmony with the heart | url=http://www.identity-foundation.de/images/stories/downloads/Studie_Deutsch-Sein_final_klein.pdf | archive-date=2016-10-05}} According to Statista, the figure was as high as 83%.{{Cite web |title=Stolz Deutscher zu sein |url=https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/6573/umfrage/stolz-deutscher-zu-sein/ |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=Statista |language=de}} In a 2020 Pew Research Center survey, 53% of participants surveyed in Germany said they were proud of their country, the highest figure among the nations surveyed (France (45%), United Kingdom (41%), United States (39%).{{Cite web |last1=Silver |first1=Laura |last2=Fagan |first2=Moira |last3=Connaughton |first3=Aidan |last4=Mordecai |first4=Mara |date=2021-05-05 |title=5. National pride and shame |work=Views About National Identity Becoming More Inclusive in U.S., Western Europe |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2021/05/05/5-national-pride-and-shame/ |access-date=2024-06-03 |publisher=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}

{{Asof|since=y|1981}}, the World Values Survey polls for national values and beliefs. The survey includes the question "Are you proud to be [insert nationality]?"; the answers to which range from 1 (not proud) to 4 (very proud). They then use the average answer given to create comparisons between not only nations but also high and low income citizens.{{cite journal|last1=Morse |first1=Adair|last2=Shive|first2=Sophie Anne |title=Patriotism in Your Portfolio |journal=Journal of Financial Markets |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=411–40 |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/35931|doi=10.1016/j.finmar.2010.10.006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111125010752/http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/adair.morse/research/nat080211.pdf |archive-date=November 25, 2011 |year=2011 |hdl=2027.42/35931 |hdl-access=free }}

In 2022, U.S. adults who said they were "extremely proud" to be an American hit an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll.{{Cite news |last=Brenan |first=Megan |date=2023-06-29 |title=Extreme Pride in Being American Remains Near Record Low |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/507980/extreme-pride-american-remains-near-record-low.aspx |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=Gallup.com |language=en}}