Such is the patriot’s boast, where’er we roam,
His first best country ever is at home. Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveler l73
Patriotism has become a mere national self-assertion, a sentimentality of flag-cheering with no constructive duties. H G Wells, Future in America
You're just another American who is willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick being shoved up your asshole every day ... The owners of this country know the truth ... It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. George Carlin
Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized. Steve Allen
Look around America: squads of armed and angry people taking to the streets in the woodlands and public squares howling into the night. These are the soldiers of the America Militia Movement, locked and loaded. But what’s their beef? And who’s the instigator egging them on? Is it protest or it is something more sinister? America on Fire, Charlie LeDuff reporting, History 2019
According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, there are more than 600 anti-government patriot groups in the United States. ibid.
On one part of the fence is the three-percenters, marching to protect the First Amendment backed by the second; on the other side is a mix of ANTIFA, known as anti-fascists, and American Muslims and left-wing activists. ibid.
I came across a book called Black Heroes of the American Revolution and was stunned to learn that African-Americans [and Native Americans] played a crucial part in our country’s fight for independence. What I learned changed my life and my sense of heritage. It’s a story every American should know: it’s a story of black patriots. Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution, Kareem Aldul-Jabbar reporting, History 2020
In 1770 in colonial America revolution is in the air. But this idea of independence is very different depending on the colour of your skin. One-fifth of the population is of African descent and slavery is a way of life in all thirteen colonies. Our black patriots begin this story in bondage; by War’s end they will have new identities in the new nation. ibid.
The black loyalists fighting for the British are making a significant impact on the War … A truly integrated unit: the first Rhode Island regiment is born … With roughly 140 black men now in the unit, their first taste of action is the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778. Covering the retreat of six American brigades, they courageously withstand three ferocious British assaults, saving the day … Other colonies followed suit. ibid.
Colonel Tye becomes one of the thousands of blacks killed in the American revolution. ibid.
Another black patriot will emerge as clever as he is courageous to help decide the day … when an enslaved man named James Armistead Lafayett made his mark. ibid.
To criticize one’s country is to do it a service .... Criticism, in short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism – a higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals and national adulation. J William Fulbright
The stirring patriotic anthem which Shakespeare gives us in Henry V is lodged so deep in our memory ... A true portrait of a king. Simon Schama’s Shakespeare II: Hollow Crowns BBC 2012
It gets you every time doesn’t it … It was the Romantics who gave us this intense passion for the nation. Who in their poetry, music and art transformed the sentimental fondness we all feel for our place of birth into something bigger and deeper – the secular devotion of national belonging. The Romantics & Us with Simon Schama III: Tribes, BBC 2020
Nationalism is above all the emotion of longing to go back or stay where you came from. ibid.
He who joyfully marches to music rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. Albert Einstein
In no other country in the world is there such a widespread emotional attachment to the symbols of bureaucratic government structure. It’s incredibly strange. Why is American Patriotism So Weird? Youtube 18.17, Second Thought 2023
A better conception of patriotism would require a willingness to soberly assess and tackle our country’s problems. ibid.
Doesn’t actually build genuine solidarity … Actually reinforces divisions along aesthetic lines convenient to those in power. It encourages exceptionalist thinking and xenophobia … Patriotism has become this loyalty to the myth the US is the sole bastion of goodness and freedom in the world. ibid.