On Fri, 31 May 2002 09:19:36 -0400 Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
writes:
> >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.
And for his troubles, Paine had to flee England to avoid arrest and possible execution by Pitt's government, he was imprisoned in France by the Jacobins, because among other reasons he had been outspoken in opposing the execution of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, then later when he returned to the US to spend his final years, he was denounced by the preachers as an infidel, and was abandoned by many of his old friends because he had become too "controversial."
I sort of doubt that William Bennett has this particular model of patriotism in mind.
Jim F.
> --
> Yoshie
>
> * Calendar of Events in Columbus:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
> * Anti-War Activist Resources:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
> * Committee for Justice in Palestine:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>
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