I’m constantly frustrated by those people who seem determined to throw cold water on a good patriotic party. I’m talking about the type of over-intellectual person who behaves as if any sign of love for this country is some sort of a backwoods, redneck, “we’re America and we don’t do anything wrong” patriotism. What angers me most is that this particular kind of person is determined to point out our most egregious flaws at just the moment there is any hint of patriotic support. It’s not the criticism that I can’t handle; it’s the attitude behind it. Chesterton said it best (via WoC):
A man who says that no patriot should attack the Boer War until it is over is not worth answering intelligently; he is saying that no good son should warn his mother off a cliff until she has fallen over it. But there is an anti-patriot who honestly angers honest men, and the explanation of him is, I think, what I have suggested: he is the uncandid candid friend; the man who says, “I am sorry to say we are ruined,” and is not sorry at all…
The evil of the pessimist is, then, not that he chastises gods and men, but that he does not love what he chastises — he has not this primary and supernatural loyalty to things.
It’s as if they truly despise America, but are trying to hide this disgust inside patriotic critique. Being a true patriotic America doesn’t mean never having anything negative to say about our country. But it does mean that those critiques are wrapped in love and a desire to see us be even greater.
Tags: Patriotism
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