This weekend is Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n
This morning, on Bill Bennett\u2019s nationally syndicated radio program, his substitute host exchanged reflections upon the significance of patriotism with a fellow from the Claremont<\/em> Review of Books.\u00a0 <\/em>I didn\u2019t catch the latter\u2019s name. In any event, though, it\u2019s not relevant, for his view, as well as that of the host\u2019s, is <\/em>the prevailing view of patriotism.<\/p>\n We are all familiar with it: the American patriot loves his country because of the principles, <\/em>the ideals, <\/em>on which it was founded and for which it stands.\u00a0 The American soldier\u2014the most heroic and admirable figure, from this perspective\u2014fights first and foremost to protect and preserve the liberty of people everywhere.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n To put it simply, American patriotism is primarily<\/em> about defending, not <\/em>the rights of Americans, but human <\/em>rights. The American patriot, you see, is \u201ca citizen of the world.\u201d And the American soldier, as Ron Paul once said, is \u201cthe Universal Soldier.\u201d<\/p>\n This account, however fashionable, faces insurmountable problems.\u00a0 It produces particularly acute problems for the self-avowed conservative.<\/p>\n First, since the American patriot\u2019s is a devotion to principle, he may find himself obligated to side with other countries against his own<\/em>!\u00a0 <\/em>This will most certainly be the case if, at any given time, there are non-Americans throughout the world whose commitment to his ideals waxes as that of Americans appears to wane.<\/p>\n It is the universal principle <\/em>that matters morally.\u00a0 That any country\u2014including America\u2014happens <\/em>to affirm these principles is incidental.\u00a0<\/p>\n Second, the popular view of patriotism is of a piece with a view of morality generally that, however common, fails spectacularly to resonate with us on a personal level.\u00a0<\/p>\n If patriotism requires commitment to universal principles, this is because morality <\/em>demands commitment to universal principles.\u00a0 Make no mistakes about it: this is exactly the understanding of morality underwriting the dominant position on patriotism.\u00a0 But if morality consists in the observance of universal principles like \u201chuman rights,\u201d then one of two things follow.<\/p>\n Either the partiality that we have toward our <\/em>spouses, our <\/em>friends, and our <\/em>families is beyond the moral realm altogether, or it is actually immoral.\u00a0 <\/em>There is no way to avoid this conclusion.\u00a0 Any morality affirming universal principles requires impartiality.\u00a0 In glaring contrast, the intimate relationships from which we derive our identities\u2014\u201cthe little platoons,\u201d as Burke described them\u2014require partiality. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Thus, either patriotism is a moral fiction or our \u201clittle platoons\u201d are.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, the most outspoken and impassioned defenders of the current view of patriotism are self-declared \u201cconservatives.\u201d\u00a0 As such, they talk tirelessly about \u201climited government,\u201d \u201cconstitutionalism,\u201d and liberty.\u00a0 But their understanding of American patriotism undercuts this talk.<\/p>\n The United States military is an organ of the federal government.\u00a0 Soldiers, then, are as much agents of the government as are tax collectors and politicians.\u00a0 However, as radio talk show host Dennis Prager\u2014an unabashed proponent of the view of patriotism under discussion\u2014has said often, \u201cthe larger the government, the smaller the citizen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A government\u2014and military\u2014that is expected to oversee the interests of 300-plus million American citizens must already be larger than any that the Founders could have envisioned.\u00a0 A government with a military that is expected to defend \u201cthe rights\u201d of the globe\u2019s six billion <\/em>or so inhabitants is a monstrosity from which they would have recoiled in horror.<\/p>\n This Memorial Day weekend, let us rethink the prevailing orthodoxy regarding patriotism.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. This morning, on Bill Bennett\u2019s nationally syndicated radio program, his substitute host exchanged reflections upon the significance of patriotism with a fellow from the Claremont Review of Books.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t catch the latter\u2019s name. In any event, though, it\u2019s not relevant, for his view, as well as that of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n