The Virtue of the Vicious

Here in the U.S. Memorial Day was "celebrated" last Monday. It's a day for honoring the war dead throughout our history, but like most holidays here it has become an excuse for barbecues. I wonder at the people who say "Happy Memorial Day." We're not supposed to be happy. Do Jews tell each other "Happy Yom Kippur?"

Anyway, when days like this roll around we see Americans trip over themselves trying to be patriotic. This usually involves the flag. I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in America we have a flag fetish. It is treated like a sick infant--don't touch it the wrong way, don't even look at it funny. Politicians have to wear flag lapels lest they appear unpatriotic, so the symbolism of wearing one is completely lost.

Which leads me to thinking--is patriotism a good thing? Samuel Johnson called it the last refuge of a scoundrel; Oscar Wile the virtue of the vicious. That certainly rings true in America today, when men wearing red MAGA caps signify their patriotism by calling for the deaths of liberals. In my view, patriotism is not a good quality.

Of course, patriotism can be good for the right reasons. It's more sinister brother, nationalism, is the word that rarely escapes anyone's lips (except for the idiot president, who declared he was a nationalist and also wished the Japanese a happy Memorial Day). The two words were interchangeable until the beginning of the 20th century. Now we see them this way: patriotism is love of country, while nationalism is the belief that one's country is better than anyone else's. Certainly that is not true here, not while all the Scandinavian nation continuously poll as the happiest countries on Earth.

Patriotism, it seems to me, stems out of the human need for tribalism. It was an essential part of our evolution. Like pack animals, we discovered it was a lot easier for us to survive by sticking together, rather than going it alone. Today this lends itself to some strange by-products, from racism to rooting for the local team. We identify with a group, declare ourselves part of it, and then shun, or worse, destroy those who are different. Why do we root for our countrymen in the Olympic games, or the football team in our city? Who wins these contests has no effect on our lives, and we don't know them, but we consider them part of us, part of our tribe.

I was particularly annoyed this week by a group that goes around planting flags on Memorial Day. Flag gardens, they are called. They bring some relief to the relatives of the dead, but really, this is symbolism at its worse. It's a waste of time, not only because somebody is going to go and have to pick up those flags, or they will just be trash in a few days. With all the problems in the world, this should be time spent actually helping people, especially veterans, many of whom sleep in the streets, and commit suicide at a rate of 20 per day.

A lot of memes floated around that we should stand at attention before the flag. I say phooey. It's just a piece of cloth. If you want to salute the flag, go ahead, but don't tell other people to do so. That's not patriotism, that's browbeating.