Emotionalistic Patriotism

If everyone was patriotic to their country at the expense of rationalistic awareness and moral uprightness, then every person would be a fool, living for a meaningless personal love of an arbitrary geographical state in denial or ignorance of logical truths about the matter.  As associated in many minds as patriotism is with specific countries, and as much as some patriots all but worship their country while denouncing foreigners for doing the same, there is no one country or group of people that is incapable of choosing to fall into this stupidity.  Emotionalistic patriotism is always a voluntary philosophical stance, and more nations than simply the United States could be guilty of this, with the patriotism of each person being tied to them as an individual rather than decided by their country of birth or residence.

America's historic fascination with the most asinine forms of patriotism is certainly not its only possible manifestation.  It is not as if other countries cannot or have not or do not grasp for this same kind of idiotic loyalty to and approval of a country simply because its people are born there, no matter how irrational or unjust its leaders and social norms are.  The logical possibility of other countries fostering fallacious patriotism (which is knowable without historical or modern examples) aside, China, England, and more pressure their citizens to have a meaningless subjective attachment to their state or, in certain cases, force outward submission to oppressive governments, such as North Korea.  A country like China or North Korea is according to many accounts led by egoistic, irrationalist fools who demand allegiance not to reason, God, and justice, but to the whims and benefit of a ruling figure or elite at the threat of death or worse.

In the United States, while patriotism is not necessarily expressed domestically with this level of direct, casual brutality, it is strong enough in its hold on some people, particularly conservatives, that it dissuades them from criticizing their country's glaring faults or even reevaluating their pathetic faith in their happenstance homeland.  For someone like this, the only focus will be on supporting their own country in thought and deed to the extent that people from other countries are possibly regarded as inferior.  This kind of patriotism is almost inseparable from adherence to nationalism when given full devotion.  Thinking they are not being arrogant, "only patriotic," this kind of irrationalist deceives himself or herself to avoid giving up comfortable but false or assumed beliefs.

In all of these types of patriotism, the forced outward compliance with social constructs or the assumption or cultural conditioning-based allegiance reduces to the stupidity of emotionalism or relativism.  Patriotism can be misused or embraced on fallacious grounds by people of any nation, not just America or the other major political presences in contemporary global events.  Universally, if it is anything more than a subjective affection for one's homeland recognized as not being morally obligatory or a logically necessary truth, it is a terribly irrational stance to have.  American or not, no one is on the right side of reality for their irrationalism and emotionalism in a political context and beyond.