"the greatest country in the world" Re: Chomsky News Network

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>  > >making the US live up to its ideals.
>>
>>  "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" -- the most memorable
>>  words from the Declaration of Independence -- are not patriotic
>>  goals; they are goals of possessive individualism dedicated to
>>  accumulation of as much profits as possible.
>>
>>  In contrast, the ideals of the French Revolution -- Liberté, Egalité,
>  > Fraternité -- are patriotic.
>
>Perhaps we need a return to the original meaning in English of "patriot"
>-- someone who attacks the government. Dr. Johnson (and I admire him
>greatly) is given too much credit for one of his famous assertions,
>"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." By patriot he meant
>the Noam Chomskys of his day. His wisecrack improved in accuracy as the
>language shifted beneath it.
>
>Carrol

One model of patriotism would be Tom Paine, who made himself a 
revolutionary patriot in England, America, and France -- in short in 
_any_ nation.  Patriotism in this sense and American exceptionalism 
(which most think of as _the_ definition of patriotism in the USA and 
to which the belief that this is "the greatest country in the world" 
boils down) are incompatible.
-- 
Yoshie

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