Reply #35: Patriotism...

[personman]

I think it's a tool governments and the elite use to separate us, and to condition people in such a fashion that they can look at other people as less then human and justify commiting attrocities against eachother to themselves.

I don't really care what happens to Saddam, but I disagree that lack of patriotism is an undesirable. Maybe if people were a little less patriotic and a little more empathetic we could all quit killing and robbing eachother.

-personman

“Patriotism ... is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.”

“The people are urged to be patriotic ... by sacrificing their own children. Patriotism requires allegiance to the flag, which means obedience and readiness to kill father, mother, brother, sister.”

-Emma Goldman

“(Nationalism is) a set of beliefs taught to each generation in which the Motherland or the Fatherland is an object of veneration and becomes a burning cause for which one becomes willing to kill the children of other motherlands or fatherlands.”

-Howard Zinn