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Quote of the Day - Patriotism

Seawriter
@Seawriter
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Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families. -- Benjamin Rush

Patriotism is in bad odor today, thanks to academia and the popular transnationalist cult that dominates the elite. (So is natural affection for the support of families among these groups.) Yet Benjamin Rush has the right of it. Without patriotism (and stable families), societies fall apart. Oddly, societal breakdown and chaos favor the elite. They have enough resources to weather the chaos, with the added benefit that no one can rise from the great unwashed to challenge their leadership. Funny, that.

Rush came from a class that favored growing societies, desiring a rising tide that lifted all, yielded greater resources for all, and, in the end, built a more powerful society. He knew this meant others might surpass him in wealth, status, and power. Rush believed enough in virtue to accept that and encouraged the fostering of those rising as allies, not rivals to be crushed. He sincerely believed patriotism - putting the welfare of your country first - was a key to achieving this.

Last week, Marco Rubio delivered one of the most magnificent defenses of the virtues of the West - including patriotism - at the foot of the Athenian Acropolis. I believe it to be one of the finest speeches of this century, up there with Churchill's "Finest Hour" speech of the last century. If you have not heard it in full, you should. I have embedded the speech in its entirety below.

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Discussion (15)

  • David Foster@DavidFoster

    Claire Lehmann (published of Quillette) has argued that 'Nationalism the antidote to racism'

    video link

    ...perhaps overstated, but basically true: the collapse of national feeling can lead--and probably does lead--to the emergence of warring tribes, whether race-based or other, within the national territory

  • Seawriter@Seawriter
    ReplyingtoDavid Foster

    David Foster (View Comment):

    Claire Lehmann (published of Quillette) has argued that ‘Nationalism the antidote to racism’

    video link

    …perhaps overstated, but basically true: the collapse of national feeling can lead–and probably does lead–to the emergence of warring tribes, whether race-based or other, within the national territory

    There is a lot of truth in that. My tribe is the Greeks. My nationality is American. Because I am a patriot my nationality trumps my tribe every time, I honor and cherish my Greek heritage, but my country comes first. Otherwise? I'd likely go with my tribe.

  • Bob Thompson@BobThompson
    ReplyingtoSeawriter

    David Foster (View Comment):

    Claire Lehmann (published of Quillette) has argued that ‘Nationalism the antidote to racism’

    video link

    …perhaps overstated, but basically true: the collapse of national feeling can lead–and probably does lead–to the emergence of warring tribes, whether race-based or other, within the national territory

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    There is a lot of truth in that. My tribe is the Greeks. My nationality is American. Because I am a patriot my nationality trumps my tribe every time, I honor and cherish my Greek heritage, but my country comes first. Otherwise? I’d likely go with my tribe.

    This is the viewpoint of real Americans. It is damaging when second generation and beyond who should act like real American exhibit old country tribalism.

  • Subcomandante America@TheReticulator

    Joseph Laconte at National Review didn't think it was a super great speech:

    Marco Rubio's Earnest, Flawed Defense of the West

    Here are a couple of paragraphs from his article:

    The concepts of virtue and justice, however, appear nowhere in Rubio’s account of the achievements of the West and of the American political order. There are references to “heroism, honor, duty,” but they are extracted from any moral or religious context. There is a nod to Christianity and “the empire of Christendom,” but no hint of the civilizing impact of the Christian gospel on the Greco-Roman world. Rubio thus praises Achilles for his “pursuit of eternal glory” but seems unaware that it was Achilles’s cruelty, uncontrolled rage, and ego — his hubris — that led to his undoing. Maybe the reason for Rubio’s silence about these vices is that they match too closely with those of the president he serves.

    Perhaps the most striking aspect of Rubio’s speech is the total lack of any democratic purpose to American foreign policy. Instead, the nation’s great aims are to “reindustrialize our economy,” “rebuild our factories,” and “fight for dominance of the technologies and industries of the future.” Again, the unanswered question recurs: toward what end?

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