[FUPQ-19] Be a patriot
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by Pfenix Quinn
[FUPQ-19] Be a patriot
The Free University of Phoenix Quinn is a service of the Socialist Freedom Party, a person-centric collective with a universal perspective and a down-to-earth praxis. Our utilitarian motto is: "Think galactic, Act elastic, Be fantastic". Or something like that. At any rate, it is blissful.
This is lecture Number 19 in a 20-part series on How to Combat Tyranny.
Set a good example for what your country -- and your e-country -- means for the generations to come. They will need it.
Here's a list of a few things that are NOT patriotic:
* Mocking war heros and their families.
* Discriminating against veterans when hiring.
* Trying to ban disabled people from your property.
* Confusing minor personal tribulations with traumatic national ones.
* Avoiding paying taxes, especially when working families (or players) pay their fair share.
* Spending contributions to political campaigns or group treasuries on personal swag.
* Admiring dictators in other lands.
* Cultivating relationships with human rights abusers.
* Calling on other countries to interfere in your country's politics.
* Citing foreign propaganda when conducting domestic politics.
* Sharing advisors with oligarchs.
* Soliciting foreign policy advice from major shareholders of foreign-based companies.
* Reading out speeches written by folks on the payroll of foreign-based companies.
* Appointing important advisors who have taken money from or who are closely tied to foreign propaganda outlets.
* Appointing a director of foreign affairs who has close business dealings with foreign states.
A nationalist is not the same thing as a patriot.
A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, then tells us that we are the best.
A nationalist endlessly broods on power, victory, defeat, revenge whilst being uninterested in what happens in the real world (or to real players).
A nationalist is a relativist whose only truth is the resentment felt in relation to others.
A nationalist has no universal values, neither aesthetic or ethical.
A patriot wants the nation to live up to its ideals.
A patriot asks fellow citizens to be concerned with their best selves.
A partiot is concerned with with real world, with other players, with sustaining the nation and its community.
A patriot has universal values, always wishes the nation well, wishing that it should do better.
There is a dark, menancing range of possible futures. A nationalist will always say "that can't happen here", which is the first step towards disaster. A patriot knows that the worst can happen, but that we will prevent it.
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At the end of this lecture series (next week is the last lecture!), important fake diplomas and titles will be doled out based on responses provided in the comment sections. Participation counts. Indicate attendance by leaving a comment or endorsing the article. Higher honors will be awarded according to the degree of critical thinking, mindfulness and humor exhibited by responders.
Examples of questions you might like to discuss in response to this lecture:
* How does the contrast between being a patriot and being a nationalist play out in eRepublik?
* Particularly with respect smaller e-nations: Some seem to thrive while others don't. Some need the protection of a bigger alliance; others pretty much maintain their integrity as a community no matter what happens to their borders. What is key to successfully holding a "national community" together in eRepublik?
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Examples of questions you might like to discuss in response to this lecture:
* How does the contrast between being a patriot and being a nationalist play out in eRepublik?
* Particularly with respect smaller e-nations: Some seem to thrive while others don't. Some need the protection of a bigger alliance; others pretty much maintain their integrity as a community no matter what happens to their borders. What is key to successfully holding a "national community" together in eRepublik?
Hmmm...those don'ts remind me of someone...
The contrast between nationalism and patriotism in eRepublik is, at least sometimes, a matter of whether or not you consider a RL citizen of a country superior to an immigrant, no matter how much the immigrant may contribute to the community. Having spent a large percentage of my eLife in small countries that were not my RL country, I have seen this at play, and it can destroy a small country. Although I like and respect many of those playing in their native lands, even in V1, there were rarely enough of them to maintain their countries' sovereignty without outside help. Now, many of them are down to a mere handful of players, and their are often targeted by their larger neighbors.
Even larger nations, such as the eUS, have many citizens who come from other lands. Sometimes we know who they are, and sometimes not. It really doesn't (or shouldn't) matter, as long as they are contributing something to the community as a whole.
A nationalist says "My country, right or wrong." A patriot says "Let's make our country the best it can be."
V!!
"A patriot knows that the worst can happen, but that we will prevent it."
In all things in RL, games I play, etc. my mantra has always been "Plan for the worst, expect the best".
My wife can tell you I say it often to many people. In days past though my saying went more like this "Plan for the worst, hope for the best". While I do strongly believe in hope and other things, the saying I felt gave a sense that we didn't have any control over the situation. In reality we do, hence the change in the saying.
While it may seem like a futile effort sometimes we can indeed effect our world in both small and large ways in the the way we interact with others. Both IRL and in game we see the contract of nationalism vs patriotism often in the words people choose to use.
I am not a patriot myself, I don't support any nation. I do feel for the neighbourhood/city/region/country/world (in that order) where I live whether it's in game or in real life. I have seen too much damage done by nationalism. I think it's too much romantic and it destroys too much. Some patriotism I can appreciate especially when it is the kind written in this article. I try to help building communities where people are been judged by their acts and not by their colour, religion or whatever. The situation can be improved for almost all when we try to work for that. Even though what we do as individuals can be seen as throwing paper balls it does make an impact. One individual saved is the step to saving the world.
Patriotism may have helped to form nations, a force that helped to include people: you were no longer only a resident of your city/town/region but also part a larger group: a citizen of your country. But once it was a given, it was a force that could easily be harnessed to exclude people. People living on the other side of the border, people from a different ethnic background or religion. A nation or a country is too big and too small an entity to incite my loyalty. Pollution, global warming and wars exceed borders. And so should human rights. My street, my neighbourhood and my city is where I live, where I can make my voice heard, where I can make a difference. Community, worldwide and local, is where I belong.
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