The Heretic
{Breaking the Dogma}
Patriotism: A Menace
WHAT is patriotism? Is it love of one's birthplace,
the place of childhood's recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations? Is it the place where, in childlike naiveté, we would watch the fleeting clouds, and wonder why we, too, could not run so swiftly? Is it the place where we would sit at mother's knee, enraptured by wonderful tales of great deeds and conquests? If that were
patriotism, few men of today could be called upon to be patriotic, since the place of play has been turned into factory, mill, and mine, while deafening sounds of machinery have replaced the music of the birds. Nor can we longer hear the tales of great deeds, for the stories our mothers tell today are but those of sorrow, tears, and grief.
What, then, is patriotism? "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of scoundrels," said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment for the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the average workingman.
Indeed, conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider themselves better, nobler, grander and more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot.
It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.
The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, with the result that, from early infancy, the mind of the child is poisoned with bloodcurdling stories about the Germans, the French, the Italians, Russians, Pakistanis etc.
When the child has reached manhood, he is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord himself to defend his country against the attack or invasion of any foreigner.
It is for that purpose that we are clamoring for a greater army and navy, more battleships and ammunition. It is for that purpose that America has within a short time spent 4 hundred million
dollars, Russia spent a 360 million dollars and India spent 275 million dollars. Just think of it; 275 million dollars taken from the produce of the people. For surely it is not the rich, who contribute to patriotism. The rich are cosmopolitans, perfectly at home in every land. We in India know well the truth of this.
Are not our rich Indians Frenchmen in France, Germans in Germany Englishmen in England and Americans in America? And do they not squander with cosmopolitan grace fortunes coined by Indian factory children and cotton slaves? Yes, theirs is the patriotism that will make it possible to send messages of condolence to a despot like the Russian Tsar, when any mishap befalls them.
It is a patriotism that will assist the arch-murderer, Diaz, in destroying thousands of lives in Mexico. It is patriotism that will lead to the Koreans fighting among themselves till everyone is dead and it is patriotism that will lead to all civil, religious, political and cold wars till the world rusts in peace. When we have undermined the patriotic illusion, we shall have cleared the path for that great structure wherein all nationalities shall be united into a universal brotherhood, a truly FREE SOCIETY.
(Vox Populi)
Author’s Note: The above thoughts just stress the need to think beyond and the need to sometimes meander into unknown territories and definitely not an attempt to hurt any institution. Any arguments, counter arguments, flaws in text or articulation can be brought to either the Author’s note directly or to any of the board bearers of VOX-PLI.