Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race. Hence, we can allow no appeal to patriotism, to revenge any national insult or injury.
Garrison was very radical and if you read his declaration of sentiments you'll see what I mean. He was a tenacious abolitionist, writer, and promoter of women's rights. He fervently believed in Jesus' message of nonviolence and in combating evil with love. With regards to his quote, to what extent do we think of ourselves as citizens of the US as opposed to citizens of the world? To what extent do our national identities contribute to the killing of innocent people around the world or to the saving of innocent lives? Why is it that government spying, drone strikes, and bombings would be completely unthinkable in say, Denver, but go unquestioned in Pakistan or Yemen?
Along the same lines, I have always found the phrase "proud to be an American" a bit bewildering. It may be that I am misunderstanding the word proud. It seems to me that I can be proud of things I have accomplished, like getting a degree from Mines or standing up to a bully. But it seems silly to be proud that I am a male or to be proud of where I was born, things which I have no control over. Perhaps if I had moved here by choice and worked very hard to become an American maybe I would feel proud of fulfilling my dream. Or maybe it means that they are proud of America and this makes them proud to be American. But even so, I am proud of many things America, as a country, has done, but deeply ashamed of others. I am proud of many of the constitutional amendments, and the men and women who fought to enact them, but not of the fact that the original document included provisions for slavery. I am glad that sometimes we have promoted democracy, but disturbed that other times we have stifled it in order to promote our own interests. I'm not saying it's a bad country, but I just don't understand the notion. I'm interested to know what others think on the subject. Perhaps I am just misinterpreting the terms...
Jacob, I have often had similar discussions with my international friends while living abroad. These friends were from New Zealand, Germany, France, UK, Australia, Chile, and the US; many of them had lived in or at least visited the States, and they always were very anxious to discuss the American political and social mindset. After many nights and many beers, what we determined from our discussions was that it was not quite fair to generalize on the patriotism of citizens from different countries because most citizenship constructs are contextual. To elaborate, our specific group, being a collection of intelligent, extroverted, open-minded college students who were studying abroad, had many contextual similarities despite the fact that we all grew up in different cultures. We all shared a genuine compassion for all of mankind, and though we all were proud of the respective countries in which we grew up, we in no way could argue that any of our nations were "the best." We definitely considered ourselves world citizens and tried to live our lives as such. Most importantly, we contributed our mindsets mainly to our educational backgrounds, especially from high school and college. Though we were all citizens with our respective national prides, we could critically and effectively analyze both the pros and cons of each of our own nations with open minds, although sometimes with fervent emotions.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, we also discussed how we knew many people, perhaps far too many people, from our homelands whom were quite the opposite. For example, growing up in the middle of nowhere southern Colorado, it pains me to say that many of the friends I grew up with have still not gone through the trouble of learning or caring about anything outside of their local bubble. Despite that, these people were often the quickest to harshly judge the decisions of our president or government in foreign affairs and the actions of other nations, all subjects of which they specifically chose to learn nothing about. My friends from abroad all witnessed this same occurrence in their home nations, and we were all deeply saddened by it. Another thing we discussed relating to context was the very way in which we were each taught about history in our separate countries. We knew that history was "written by the victors," but I don't think we quite understood the extreme bias that is present in history being taught in different nations. For instance, what I learned about the United State's history and how my German friend, Lisa, learned about it was very different. In fact, the more I described the versions of historical events ingrained in all us Americans from kindergarten on, especially for controversial issues such as slavery, pioneer expansion, and US intervention in foreign wars, the more I began to feel like it had been learned through a thin veil of pro-American propaganda. As another example, I could never stress how differently our perceptions of World War II were, especially between those of us from Germany, France, and America. That discussion went on for ages, so I will not delve into it here. From those discussions, I began to believe that a lot of our ideas of American pride and of global consciousness, whether they be good or bad ideas, come from the biased wording in our own history books, the tones of voice in our teachers, and the images constantly flashed in our eyes by American media. My friends believed this was also the case in their home countries. These discussions helped us realize how both context and education are so important for the development of world citizens.
I must also add that it was ridiculously evident that my foreign friends knew much much more about American politics, economics, society, and foreign affairs than probably half the people I knew back home, including myself. Though all countries probably have an education system that is a bit biased towards national pride in history, I do think that America’s is much stronger than most – more importantly, I think American primary school history curricula purposefully omit any deep focus on global history, which might lead to better understanding of global consciousness, though perhaps with a decrease in the whole “American pride” ideal.
DeleteOne last thing I wanted to note, although it might be a bit off topic, was how my foreign friends and I all realized the drastic extent of America’s soft power on the world through the media. Here in America, an average citizen might turn on CNN a few times a week or read the Denver Post, and that will be their main form of learning about and understanding the rest of the world. Our televisions are all tuned to American stations, with commercials for American products, with images of ideal American men and women, so this is what we understand. We are not regularly exposed to shows, commercials, or any media relaying culture from the rest of the world. America is what we know and what we love. Being abroad, I realized that much of the developed world, especially in NZ and Australia, also often watched these American shows, bought these American products, and watched these American commercials. However, since these people also often have exposure to media from their own countries and many many others, it is easier for them to sift through our news and media to determine what is valuable and what is hosh posh. In this way, I think they are better off because they do not get “brainwashed” by American media. I especially witnessed how the younger generations in both our country and many others are super susceptible to the American media, and I don’t know whether that is a good or bad thing. For instance, I am not exaggerating when I say that about 2 out of every 5 people between the age of 10 and 25 that I met abroad asked me about the show Jersey Shore when they discovered I was from America. They thought it was super cool and that we all party like that all the time and that’s why it was so awesome to live in America. The fact that this idea was what America had been spreading to the world through its soft power absolutely disgusted me. With that many eyes around the world watching our media, I think that we have the ability to drastically affect both the way the rest of the world views America and just the general ideas people around the world are exposed to. These effects can be positive or negative, but that is up to us Americans to determine.
Jacob, what a great point you bring up here! When it comes to the slogan “proud to be an American”, I believe several people take this to mean being proud of the biased America seen in the history books, as Brandon pointed out. We describe our country in terms of greatness, and we foster the idea of American exceptionalism. This is visible in our media. The other day I read an article on CNN with the headline, “Putin: America, you’re not special.” After reading the article, I realized that Putin had a point. Some, though not all Americans such as Brandon and his international friends, have a grandiose view of our country that is really inaccurate. Yes, America was founded by a revolution. Yes, our soft power has a great deal of impact for the rest of the world. And yes (unfortunately), the legal drinking age in America is 21 whereas most of the rest of the world sets the age at 18 or lower. America is unique in various ways, but uniqueness is not entitlement.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, to answer your question more directly, to be proud to be an American revolves around the fact that in America, we can seize the opportunity to effectively change the world. This only happens sometimes as seen in Arendt’s discussion of the American and French Revolutions. America is not really any different than any other country, but we have come to symbolize an idea that you can change your circumstances to improve your life. Restated, perhaps we are proud of this idea (?).
I also think the pride a person can experience comes from the recognition of one’s own past and the development of oneself amidst adversity. I, from the same southern Colorado area as Brandon, would not necessarily say that I’m proud to be from there; rather, I’m proud that I left there, that I am completing college, and that I have people there who care about me and I about them. I recognize that pieces of that culture have shaped very valuable parts of my character, albeit very ignorant perceptions of the world.
I am an American, but I hope not to be an ignorant American. This class has honestly made me feel like a very ignorant person who has been uneducated in many of the issues we talk about and who is coming to realizing the bias ingrained within my own viewpoints since I have not been taught or sought to learn anything different. I hope that when I travel the world, I can break any American stereotypes that Americans are always eating McDonald’s and always the loudest, most boisterous, and disrespectful people on earth.
I’m not sure if I helped to answer your question or if I just convoluted the issue more.
What if we extend the discussion to patriotism? I am in agreement with Jacob, but I would further extend the sentiment to the concept of patriotism. I (and I imagine this is a terribly unpopular opinion) cannot understand this concept.
ReplyDeleteWhenever the topic of patriotism, or 'American Exceptionalism' arises, I can't help but think of the petty and irrational fervor with which people associate with sports teams. Why should I support any one team over another? Broncos Country? The incidental location of my origin has no effect, whatsoever, on the success of a sports team. Yet, it is no surprise when someone yells at a television, unquestionably supporting some team or another. In the majority of cases, no thought is given: the team supported is the one that bears the name of your state or city.
Extending the concept, I think patriotism is, in almost every case, unjustified. It is a mechanism to create cohesion and perpetrate the status quo, no matter what agenda that may represent.
Aaron, Katie brings up a good comment in her post below, "my feelings of patriotism if you will, bind me to my fellow New Mexicans in a way that is more permanent than the physical boundaries of the state of New Mexico." Perhaps what is unjustified is not patriotism itself but the irrational actions of people in the name of patriotism (such as yelling at the TV).
DeleteIs patriotism always unjustified? I think in terms of sports, it is necessary to have team cohesion in order for the team to succeed. That would be for the players. As for the fans, there are those who get so involved as to almost live vicariously through the athletes who have the ability to do what they can't. I would argue, though, that the presence of the fans helps the athletes. After all, why play a game if there are no stakes and no one is able to watch?
Aaron, I can tell we feel very similar about these topics. I too cannot understand the irrationality seen in sports fans.
DeleteCat, I understand the presence of fans makes is fun and makes the games fun to play, but it doesn't really answer the question of why the loyalty to local teams? I can understand if you just say "I like to support my local team" but people become way more emotionally invested in their team than I can understand, or than can be explained just by them wishing to support the local players (not to mention most people on professional sports team aren't local athletes...)
Aaron, I’m going to use your last couple of sentences as a springboard. Alex, our guest panelist from Russia, asked a question during his description of the fall of the Berlin Wall that really stuck with me: “Why do different countries have a border?”
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of this has to do with the mechanism of cohesion that you described. I thought that it was very interesting that Alex described people living in areas away from Moscow as a different group of people, a different culture, even though both groups live inside the borders of Russia. It makes me wonder if patriotism is also a mechanism of cultural assimilation.
I’ve seen the following story making the rounds on the internet. I don’t know if this actually happened (it wouldn’t surprise me if it is a true account), but I feel it accurately portrays the mixing of patriotism and forced assimilation. In a blatantly multicultural nation like the United States, patriotism by necessity requires discrimination against “other” groups and traditions:
"Overheard at a grocery store by someone waiting in line behind a woman speaking on her cellphone in another language. Ahead of her was a white man. After the woman hangs up, he speaks up.
Man: 'I didn't want to say anything while you were on the phone, but you're in America now. You need to speak English.'
Woman: 'Excuse me?'
Man:*very slow* 'If you want to speak Mexican, go back to Mexico. In America, we speak English.'
Woman: 'Sir, I was speaking Navajo. If you want to speak English, go back to England.'"
http://nativemyths.blogspot.com/
As far as I have been able to find with a quick Google search, English is more or less considered the official language of Colorado. New Mexico does not have an official language. I know that when I was in elementary school I learned the Pledge of Allegiance in both Spanish and English. Every other street name back home is in Spanish. My high school, Sandia, had a Matador as our mascot (Sandia Matador translates as watermelon killer – not exactly a threatening image I know). The last I heard, UNM has more students of Hispanic descent enrolled than students of Caucasian descent.
I’m not sure if this is relevant, but as a proud (one might even say patriotic) New Mexican, I find myself highly annoyed by individuals who complain about non-English speakers. However, I myself cannot speak Spanish, Navajo, Tewa, Zuni, or any of the other non-English languages spoken in my home state; therefore it is not rational for me to support multi-lingual individuals at the expense of the use of the English language. However, as a mechanism of cohesion, my feelings of support for the linguistic diversity I grew up around, my feelings of patriotism if you will, bind me to my fellow New Mexicans in a way that is more permanent than the physical boundaries of the state of New Mexico.
Katie, thanks for your comments; they are always insightful. I'm from Illinois, but I don't think I have any feeling of patriotism for Illinois or any special feeling towards people who are from Illinois when I meet them. I don't know why this is, so your feeling that you are bound to New Mexicans intrigues me. Why do you think it is that feel bound to New Mexicans? Is it because you value the emphasis on linguistic diversity that is embodied there? If so, why tie this value to a geographic location and not just be its advocate regardless of location? I'm just curious if you could clarify what you meant. Thanks!
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