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Red, White, and Pluto
At the very moment the New Horizons probe whizzed past Pluto, something rather beautiful happened at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, from where the craft is controlled (click “read on” to see it):
#PlutoFlybyhttps://t.co/791BGHHzYn
— Andy Rivkin (@asrivkin) July 14, 2015
The patriotism was warranted. Though the mission wasn’t exclusively American — a few of the scientists were from overseas — it was overwhelmingly staffed, funded, and run by citizens of the United States.
Nationalism is an inseparable part of the human experience. All of us — albeit, to varying degrees — take pride in endeavors and achievements made on behalf of our team or nation. Like most human characteristics, it has both moral and immoral, healthy and unhealthy, expressions. Our energies will be far better spent corralling it toward its better versions than trying to stamp it out.
This kind of scientific/engineering achievement ranks, to my mind, high among the moral ones, albeit after killing those who seek to harm our citizens and allies, and taking on humanitarian aid when prudent and deserved. The New Horizons mission is an American program, but one whose wonder, excitement, and discoveries are available to everyone with an internet connection or — soon — a poster.
As a good libertarian, would I have preferred the mission have been privately funded? Of course I would (though there’s nothing about a private mission that would have precluded a little flag-waving). But I can think of few better, more wholesome ways to blow off a little nationalistic steam.
Published in General, Science & Technology
Fascist.
Sorry, couldn’t resist:
https://twitter.com/6bird4/status/621187073203154944
That’s no moon.
Sorry to disagree, Tom, but I think moments like this are what distinguish nationalism and patriotism.
I’ve been meaning to brush-off my Orwell, but patriotism has always struck me as a word for the good sort of nationalism.
Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think we really disagree.
This has also been going around. The low-res image is the best we had as of a year ago (courtesy of the Hubble), the hi-res one is… well, we know.
Well, flags were originally invented for the purpose of identifying armies in battle.
As such, one could argue that a flag always implies the “bad” sort of nationalism (i.e. militaristic nationalism) rather than simply representing a people.
Even if I don’t necessarily agree with that interpretation, I think this could be why certain people object to jingoistic “flag-waving”. Because of the military origins of flags, flag-waving (arguably) implies domination over others rather than pride in oneself.
Welll….
Patriot comes from the Greek for “country”, while nation comes from the Latin for “birth, race, or people”.
In other words, patriotism is about geo-political division, while nationalism is about ethno-cultural affinity.
Whether one should put one’s country ahead of one’s nation, or vice-versa, seems like the whole crux of the debate in the first place. Whether one or the other is “the good kind” is entirely arguable.
Hm. So American’s can’t truly be nationalist because we lack a common ethno-cultural background. Therefore we can only be patriotic as we are all citizens of one Nation.