Essay: Patriotism

Public consensus, similar to politics, varies greatly when it comes to American history, especially as it pertains to the classroom. Views about the content and historical interpretation included in history texts have reached a heightened polarization in recent years. This can be seen in the vast differences between the diatribes of Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of the United States, and Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen’s, A Patriot’s History of the United States. While both books, prescribed by this introductory course into American History, cover many of the same topics, they clearly paint different pictures. I feel that any text seeking to represent a responsible survey of a

Humankind would be a better place if we were all just citizens of the world. In Martha Nussbaum’s “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism” she argues whether children should be taught in education to be patriotic or cosmopolitan. Nussbaum’s definition of cosmopolitanism is a person whose primary allegiance is to the community of human beings in the entire world. Nussbaum begins her argument by raising questions about education and how students ought to be taught that hunger in third world countries are problems of global problems and not the countries problem. She says “We should regard out deliberations as, first and foremost, deliberations about human problems of people in particular concrete situations, not problems growing out of a national

American Patriotism can be defined in different ways. When people think of the word patriotism, most often say "to love one 's country". That is true in some aspect, but being patriotic means much more than that. In the words of Mark Twain, he states, “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” True patriotism is to support what 's best for this country and contribute in ways to help that can be beneficial for everyone. However, to a socialist, patriotism can be viewed within three main perspectives: the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspective.

P - patriotic; Patriotism is a quality that shows one's love for his or her country. By being patriotic, a person is being loyal to their country. It shows that they support and care for the things others have fought to give them. I display my patriotism by something as little as saluting the flag to say the Pledge of Allegiance daily.

Many people believe that they are patriotic people. But, what truly makes one patriotic? In “Saying Goodbye to Patriotism” Robert Jensen critiques the effects of patriotism on today’s modern society, the United States, and globalization after the attacks on 9/11. Jensen defines patriotism in his talk delivered to the Peace Action National Congress as “love and loyal or zealous support of one’s own country.” (Jensen 741) But, that is not the only definition of patriotism. One may love living in the United States so does that make them patriotic? Patriotism is probably one of the hardest words to define in today’s society.

Patriotism is a way in which we can strongly express our pride of for our nation and simply a way to honor our homeland. A feeling that has been spreading throughout the world for thousands of years. Patriotism has been such an influential aspect of literature, it has changed the historical ways of writing. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry expressed their ideas of patriotism in very different ways, but they all one idea in common, to share their powerful writing throughout the world. In many pieces of literature patriotism was shown repeatedly through the writing. For example, The Crisis No. 1, The Speech of Virginia Convention, and The Declaration of Independence all thoroughly conveyed patriotism and a revolutionary pride.

There is much controversy surrounding the idea of patriotism and the iconography of the American flag in today’s society. Some believe patriotism is simply the act of supporting the decisions of the leaders of the country. Others say, to be patriotic, people should be outspoken and voice their oppositions to what is going on in the government. Opinions also differ on the idea of what the American flag represents. One opinion of the flags representation is that the flag represents our history, and the formerly mentioned idea of patriotism. Others believe the flag also represents our history as a nation, but these beliefs focus much more heavily on the negative aspects of our history; such as slavery and other injustices carried out by our

The objective of this proposal is to explore the relationship between the National Football League’s (NFL) use of coercive patriotism and the militarization of the United States. For the purpose of this proposal, coercive patriotism will be defined as an attempt to exhibit social influence on an audience. For example: selling the notion of a strong military, presented to the public as being indispensable for a safe and secure America by way of military jet fly-overs. The NFL has grown increasingly patriotic during wartime or subsequent to national tragedies, such as 9/11. However, the league has remained exempt from major criticism concerning its use of coercive patriotism. Thus, the NFL playing a significant role

What is the definition of patriotism for America? This question can be answered in various ways, but is not always focused upon in daily life. Spanning from Colonial America up until today, this answer has fluctuated due to the happenings within the country. Although separated by time, many previous beliefs reflect similarly upon more modern occasions. Patrick Henry’s Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech provides ideas that can easily transpose to current events in present day America. In his speech, there is the one overruling idea, that of patriotism, and a few supporting points, such as individual liberty and interpretation of freedom.

The dictionary definition of patriotism is “An emotional attachment to a nation which an individual recognizes as their homeland. This attachment, also known as national feeling or national pride, can be viewed in terms of different features relating to one's own nation, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects.” In other word being a patriot means to be proud of the nation and to value and fight for what it’s beliefs are. Though this word does not just pertain to Americans it can be relevant to anyone with extreme pride in their country or ethnicity. The south more than likely has the most people with national pride than the rest of the country. Even though a lot of them like to fly the confederate flag in their

Mark Twain once commentend that a patriot was, “the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.”, implying that the majority of patriots do not know why they are patriotic. Americans are taught from birth to love the United States of America; if an American does not absolutely love America, then they must despise it, an act certainly shameful. Most Americans find themselves devoted before ever asking if the U.S. deserves devotion. Philosopher Carol Nicholson writes in her article, .Why I Am Not A Patriot, “Fixing love on an abstraction such as ‘country’ leads to...a recipe for intolerance, hate, and war.”. Devotion to a country is not wrong-a country could not grow unless its citizens had a degree of pride for it-the danger comes when people stop asking why, and not only stop questioning, but also believe their country is

In America today patriotism is very significant because unlike some countries America has a great deal of freedom. From freedom of choice, speech amongst other thing that would make someone want to be loyal and show pride in their country . Several people show their national pride in different way one of the most symbolic and respected being military service. This concept of showing national pride by serving in the military dates back to the American Revolution. The very beginning of the creation of what is now an independent and strong Nation. During the American Revolution, it is widely believed that American Soldiers willing and proudly fought to gain independence from great britain.However some historians say that this story is just a myth meaning that it was exaggerated or it just never happened . By researching and looking into the different stages of the american revolution and into the journals kept by soldiers during this period, I can be able to come to conclusion as to what I actually think about soldiers During this time period. I can be able to conclude whether or not American soldiers did really fight for patriotic reasons, if the concept of Patriotism gradually disappeared during the period of the war or if it just never existed in the first place.

Before a discourse of the specified topic can be laid out, definitions of a few terms must be distinguished. Firstly, nationalism and patriotism are two distinctly different concepts that are often used interchangeably to represent a similar school of thought. By no means, are they mutually exclusive or unrelated ideologies, but nationalism and patriotism differ in their approaches to expressing love for one’s country, respectively. These definitions can be best understood on the shoulders of essayist and drama critic, Sydney J. Harris, “The Difference Between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility while the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to a war (Harris, 1953).” While the latter definition may be a bit extreme, the general impression is still applicable. An understanding of the dichotomy between nationalism and patriotism, and how

American history usually starts with Columbus and the famous myths surrounding the “founding” of the New World. As children we learn about how Columbus fought against all odds to convince the king and queen of Spain to fund his voyage to prove the world was not flat. As we grow in our understanding of history we find that most of the world, at that time, already knew the world was round. So why do we believe in these myths? We believe in these types of myths because they make the central character or characters appear larger than life, much like a Hollywood blockbuster. In the 2000 film the Patriot, directed by Ronald Emmerich, and distributed by Columbia Pictures; we follow the story of American Revolution as seen through the eyes of a

Anti-patriotism is another form of showing to be an ideal global citizen. Promoting and what is heard often, “my country this, my county that” is not in favor of global citizens. One must be open to all forms of people and their cultures. A global citizen is one that can travel to any country and adjust to the customs or at least be open to them.