Friday, November 03, 2006
The New and Bizarre World of the Anti-patriot
I've addressed the issue of patriotism before. It's a somewhat dicey issue for a libertarian to confront, considerably less so for a conservative. This writer is a little of both (depending on the issue) and I think even a libertarian can see the flaws of an anti-patriot view that is so at odds with the preservation and support of a country which is essentially free and diverse. Of course being free means one can believe and express whatever one wishes. Just the same, those of us who differ with the views of the anti-patriot can express our disdain for them and their offensive values as well.
For all practical purposes, American leftists have generally become anti-patriots (they've always been more inclined to that stance but now it has become a predictable standard among them).
All the emotional passions seen in degrees of patriotism can be seen in patriotism's opposite. Just as a patriot may love his or her country, a typical leftist now feels compelled to despise his or her country with the same emotional charge (so long as that country does not honor the political demands of Leftism against a free market in products and ideas). All PR lip-service aside, just as a patriot will speak or act passionately in a country's defense, a leftist -- anti-patriot -- will deliberately act fervently against the interests of their home country. Biting the hand that feeds them would be an understatement. They would openly acquiesce in the destruction of that which has provided them their very platform of free expression.
The anti-patriot is definitely not "oppressed." More often than not the left's spokespersons are beyond a condition of mere material comfort. They are often well to do, have been educated, have traveled and indulged in all the luxuries and pastimes of the "materialistic" lifestyle they claim to hate and would seek to deprive others of. They are often actors, musicians, artists, writers, journalists, and college professors – hardly among the deprived, or "victims" of a free and open system of expression and commercial exchange.
How would one respond to an individual if they were to be so ungrateful and malicious toward his or her own family? Disdain for such types should be expected from anyone who sees through such transparent weaknesses in human character.
In America, the left's espoused purpose is no longer simply "creating a better world" through attacks on free enterprise (that was pretty much just a scam anyway). Their main motivation has now become the desire to destroy the very institution of America itself and punish its people for not bowing down to the elitist's unanswered demands for total power. They sympathize with and support ruthless authoritarian tyranny and now also a radical religion whose main strategy is deliberate violence against civilians (including the numerous groups the left has always claimed to champion). They will let their families, friends, and nation perish so that a clear and present enemy triumphs, often facilitating an enemy's goals to those ends.
They critique a thousand perceived sins amongst their fellow countrymen and women while fancying themselves saints of superior judgment and moral standing. They are patriotism in reverse, reliability in retreat, degeneracy, decline, and the opposite of all that is courageous and upstanding amongst fellow citizens.
They possess all the fervor of a patriot, but are a patriot's very opposite. While they typically raise their fists in rage they are more than suited to hang their heads in shame.
Shame on the anti-patriots and the weakness of character that motivates them.