Excerpt
From Chapter 4
If ever a word has been diminished, manipulated, co-opted, distorted and treated as if it were a possession, patriotism is it. The time has come, in honor of the Founders who defined this word’s true meaning and intent, defended it with their lives and honored it in their conduct, to return to that proper usage.
It will not happen easily. For too many people, patriotism is defined as an unwavering faith in traditional values. It is expressed by flying the flag, by buying a bumper sticker that pledges support for the troops, by a love-it-or-leave-it mentality.
That is not patriotism. Not even close. The flag is an important symbol, and the men and women who defend America’s interests do deserve backing during strife and gratitude afterward. But self-righteous expressions of conservative opinion are far too shallow to be called the real thing.
For too many other people, patriotism is scorned as weak or simple or compliant with outdated norms. These views are expressed by protest, by ridicule of power, by buying a bumper sticker that mocks leaders or questions authority.
That is not patriotism either. Not even close. Free speech is essential to a health democracy, and dissent an important manifestation of liberty. But these expressions of liberal sentiment are far too superficial to be called the real thing.
True patriotism – not some divisive shadow, not insistence on being in the right about some issue, not a bludgeon to hammer those with whom you disagree, but the honest emotion, the authentic thing – is love of country. Not love of self, nor love of one set of ideas, but genuine love for the common purpose and shared values within a geographic boundary.
In other words, authentic patriotism is not about you, what you believe or what you think is right. Authentic patriotism is about the United States of America, its well-being, its future, its adherence to founding principles. Authentic patriotism is not an opinion. It is an action.
So a bumper sticker for or against on any issue? That is no more proof of patriotism than the antiroyalist rantings of a Boston drunkard in a 1770s pub. Authentic patriotism is what the colonists demonstrated when they stopped having opinions and started taking steps.
The Founders understood this distinction. They knew that winning people their freedom was only half of the equation. The other half entailed cultivating common purpose. The good of the individual would endure over time only with equal attention to the good of the whole, the full society, the nation. E pluribus unum: From many, one.
This notion, in the United States today, is almost entirely gone. Our society currently is characterized by isolation, separation, the diminishment of community, the electronic virtualization of friendships and contact, the loss of mutuality, the disappearance of common purpose. Emphasis on the individual has flourished; regard for the whole has withered.
The Founders warned against such a state of affairs. Thomas Jefferson explained it in a letter to his daughter Polly:
I am convinced that our own happiness requires that we should continue to mix with the world, and to keep pace with it. … I can speak from experience on the subject. From 1793 to 1797, I remained closely at home, saw none but those who came there, and at length became very sensible of the ill effect it had upon my own mind, and of its direct and irresistible tendency to render me unfit for society, and uneasy when necessarily engaged in it. I felt enough of the effect of withdrawing from the world then to see that it led to an anti-social and misanthropic state of mind, which severely punishes him who gives in to it; and it is a lesson I shall never forget.
That instruction brings us back to today. Here is that same nation, still possessed of lofty ideals, still striving to realize those goals, still a work in progress. But today it is a nation adrift: The government’s capacity to respond to urgent problems is constrained as never before. Capitalism’s access to global labor, global capital and global markets has created a creature of growing indifference to domestic issues. Above all, the people are increasingly alienated from the formidable powers that they as citizens wield.
What will solve the problems of today? A renewed embrace of the power of the individual, a recommitment to the revolutionary idea of what a person is, a return to patriotism’s original, authentic meaning – with a fervor that is unapologetic and unabashed. There is no them, no distant entity that will solve the nation’s problems. In a democracy, there is only us, the people who elect the government, who live in our neighborhoods, who worship in our faith communities. Each one of us contains the same potential that the nation’s Founders’ not only believed in but spent their lives demonstrating – the noble power of every individual to effect change. What the Founders knew, Americans must rediscover.
There are signs that this thinking is taking hold once again – new initiatives with new energy, new kinds of people who are not waiting for government to act, who are not willing to trust the free market for answers, but are committed to restoring this nation adrift. … Many Americans are lifting their communities in ways never before imagined.
Their work offers three immediate lessons about how a democracy can thrive in the century ahead. First, if they can make a difference starting with no more than a good idea and the determination to help, then anyone can. Second, if this kind of involvement is essential to renewing the nation, then everyone is needed. Third, the challenges America faces today are less fundamental than breaking free of a tyrant king, but they are vastly more complicated. If the people can rise to the challenge, as they have before, time after time, and if they are joined by millions of others who also see the importance of working toward a common purpose, then the best chapter of the American story may yet lie ahead.
