Is Patriotism A Virtue By Alasdair Macintyre

Patriotism is one’s devotion to their country. Americans are patriotic individuals. American patriotism is demonstrated through the many American holidays celebrated, such as Independence day, which is celebrated on every fourth day of July. During this holiday, Americans display their love for the country by embracing the American flag, and wearing red, white, and blue. Fireworks spectaculars are funded by the citizens of America, so Americans can view them every July 4th. An American is a person that shows love for their country.

Freedom and citizenship are the foundational concepts of politics. However, there are disagreements among political scientists and philosophers as to how they define those concepts. This article attempts to present a short overview of the idea of freedom and citizenship from a modern political perspective. I focus on the way Thomas Jefferson and Hannah Arendt interpret those concepts and how their interpretations converse with one another.

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.

feelings of loyalty and patriotism to the nation. One who holds the ideas of loyalty and

There are many examples of ethical decisions throughout American history yet few have had a more profound impact on shaping our country then the paths chosen by the American Revolutionaries. Let’s face it, had it not been for their actions our country would probably look much different today. If it were not for the foresight of our founding fathers, men like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, or Thomas Paine (1776), who authored arguably the most compelling piece of political propaganda the world had seen to date, Common Sense. After reading Paine’s work I believe that many of the ideals and philosophies are still relevant in modern society, so much so that I was drawn into the relevance and found myself pondering the moral palaver which

American beliefs and opinions give a great understanding of what an American values. The want and need for freedom is described in many different ways based on origin or social beliefs. The main backbone of America today is freedom. Through the building of an American empire everyone can’t come to an understanding of what it is to be equally free. By comparing and contrasting the perspectives of Patrick Henry’s speech to the “Virginia Convention,” to take up arms and fight for our freedom. Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” who feels it’s time to end slavery. It is clear that the struggles of the American story are still prevalent and America has not yet found a way for freedom for all.

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.

When attempting to interpret the morality of an action in American society, it is nearly impossible to avoid reflecting on the Founding Fathers’ ideals and perspectives. Even

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.

All Americans should find their opinion on patriotism and voice that opinion. There are many different views of patriotism and many will clash, but if we continue to talk and use our minds instead of our fists or guns, we can eventually come to a compromise of both ideas, which will best represent everyone’s opinions on patriotism. Through more clearly and fairly defined ideas of patriotism we can better understand the actions of our fellow Americans and avoid more unnecessary conflicts caused by extremist ideas being the only ideas heard.

Being an American means to represent the justice, natural rights, and freedom for an individual. Many citizens indulge in these terms and make their own personal lifestyles out of them. Throughout history Americans have constantly fought for their rights. Some battles lasting longer than others, for example, the fight with Great Britain lasted over 7 years. At that time, due to the length of the fight, many had begun to rebel and form organizations that went against Great Britain. Most of these groups all had a similar goal; helping the American colonies and the nation fight back against Britain. All those who were part of an organization felt that the relationship with Britain had been more harm than help. They had viewed it as more of a contract, since the colony’s voices and opinions were not heard, or at least not taken into consideration. As the American’s power drastically fell along with their moral, Thomas Paine, an English American activist and revolutionary, had delivered multiple speeches, together known as “Crisis No.1”, which gave the colonies the encouragement needed to continue their fight for rights.

From this paper, the reader will learn a lot about America, and the things that are often glossed over when trying to present the country a patriotic and free. It is important to take steps like these towards gaining a broader picture of our nation and perhaps also the human mind. Doing these things almost always have positive effects on people and their worldviews.

From the beginning of European colonization, America built up many events such as conflicts and discoveries that occurred throughout history. The retold descriptions of these events vary in many different viewpoints. Having both the people and patriot’s interpretations of the same America’s history helped to perceive what happened during the colonial America. A Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen was written in a conservative viewpoint with deep patriotism in America’s past from its development through European colonization. Schweikart argued that no society is free from corruption, and America’s history should be remembered in a nationalistic viewpoint with virtue. A People’s History of the United States

Many ideas are important within the American culture, but to the American sense of patriotism, freedom is most fundamental. The idea of freedom is central to the American politics – which is at times referred to as liberty. Since the birth of the nation, freedom has been the vocabulary of the American language and its importance cannot be underestimated. The Declaration of Independence, for instance, ranks liberty as an inalienable right. On the other hand, the Constitution reckons that it purposes to protect civilians’ liberty. The importance of freedom has even stretched further than the political arena and has prompted the birth of civil rights movements and other activist protests. The Cold War and the Civil War were all for the cause of freedom. The importance that Americans attach to freedom can also be demonstrated from the erection of statues, banishment of slavery, use of liberty poles and a right to vote for adults. For many years, women and the African Americans have for a long time fought against denial and infringement of their freedom . However, given the importance that Americans affiliate to freedom in the conceptualization of their country, it has been the subject of modifications over the course of years especially before the Revolutionary War.

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