A lesson which needs repeating from Mark Twain.
"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death." - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
What we're seeing in the Middle East is loyalty to tribe. Most of the world has never moved beyond tribalism, so their "country" is determined by the extent and location of the tribe. Given free rein, even well-established European countries could easily break up into tribalist regions (Catalonia, in Spain, is on the verge of this now).
Since America is a conglomerate of "tribes" too diverse for any one to dominate, we've developed a collective sense of "country" unique in history. Part of our failing internationally is that we've ignored this seminal difference in our world view. Trying to export our culture too aggressively into the tribalist cultures of the rest of the world is a dead end, as tribal leaders see our non-tribe culture as a threat, and will resist us with all their will.
You put words to my thoughts. Thank you.
Most mammals have never moved beyond walking on all-fours. Most humans have never moved beyond eating other life-forms; most humans have never moved beyond procreation via bisexual reproduction.
Few wolves have moved beyond pack-ism... if that makes my point any clearer.
Few cows have moved beyond herd-ism.
America is not a conglomeration of diverse tribes. It was once one tribe, but multiculturalism has balkanized us. The very thing you praise as a virtue is one of the seeds of our destruction.
What is a nation apart from its constitution (small-c), the cultures of its inhabitants, their laws, languages, technologies and tools, their poems and musics, their modes of education and learning, the ways they transmit their cultures over times and across spaces - by war? or by trade?
A nation _is_ the sum total of its institutions and that is a complex, changing interplay of factors and forces. You can analyze the sum and decide if it is pro-life or anti-life, pro man-qua-man or against that. Absent those creations of human action, a nation is just empty land, open skies, running waters, ...
Why do invaders invade to take land from the natives? First for resources on top of the land, and then for resources discovered underground. Those who hold the land by force only later develop a unifying culture, all the trimmings of art and science, language, complex rules and laws enforced by authority or consent (extensions of the power of the original tribal chief). Institutions build up like moss on a rock or vines on a tree. Yes, they are "creations of human action" that bind society towards a shared purpose, until they are outgrown and no longer adequate to serve.
Change always brings turmoil, but unless a large part of the population decides to leave and find a better place, as they did historically but have now run out of places to flee to, it is the land on which survival can be provided that remains the starting point. This insistence on land may get sugarcoated with beautiful idealisms or with claims of prior possession, but strip away the slogans and it all comes back to: "We have to eat."
We swathe loyalty to the land in emotional language: the fatherland, the motherland, and now the homeland. See how powerful these words are, that in the name of homeland security we allow our freedoms to be curtailed and our humanity to be brutalized. It no longer occurs to us that other peoples may feel protective of their homelands and will resist invaders and aggressors as passionately as we do.
Refugees (including my family) prize life above land and will seek safer places at great risk. Why do immigrants (legal and illegal) swarm to America? Because America has land on which survival can be preserved and lives improved, thanks to generations of Americans who have built up a society in which the majority can make their lives count. Land, plus ideals. But the land comes first.
If arbitrarily advanced space bats vacuumed up the inhabitants, buildings, and infrastructure of the US and of a comparable chunk of, say, Russia and then spewed us back out in the opposite geographic locations, the US and Russia would not have their cultures conflated simply because they were on different soil.
So I think that while, right now, having 'some soil, some arable soil' is an integral part of a Land, it is not the essential part of a Land.
Jan
I would contend that the returned folks would have their values influenced heavily by the abundance or lack of natural resources. Why would anyone stakeout land that held no potential value for growth, minerals, or water? Wouldn't laws, rules and even the conduct of individuals be dictated in whole or in part by their private holding of such resources?
Of course you are correct, but I believe you miss my point: If one holds all of the other variables steady except for the 'hunk o'dirt' aspect then one can evaluate the role of said dirt. I think that having something that fills the "We have to eat" role is essential (potentially, in the future this role could be filled by direct matter transformers) so that in our current reality Some land (arable) is necessary. But the physical location of the land is not what is worthy of loyalty.
Jan
The lookout is a young male assigned to that duty and there he will stay, until the bull of the herd sends up another male to relieve him.
Keep your eye on that baboon; we’ll be back to him.
...
"The simplest form of moral behavior occurs when a man or other animal fights for his own survival. Do not belittle such behavior as being merely selfish. Of course it is selfish. . .but selfishness is the bedrock on which all moral behavior starts and it can be immoral only when it conflicts with a higher moral imperative. An animal so poor in spirit that he won’t even fight on his own behalf is already an evolutionary dead end; the best he can do for his breed is to crawl off and die, and not pass on his defective genes.
"The next higher level is to work, fight, and sometimes die for your own immediate family. This is the level at which six pounds of mother cat can be so fierce that she’ll drive off a police dog. It is the level at which a father takes a moonlighting job to keep his kids in college — and the level at which a mother or father dives into a flood to save a drowning child. . .and it is still moral behavior even when it fails.
"The next higher level is to work, fight, and sometimes die for a group larger that the unit family — an extended family, a herd, a tribe — and take another look at that baboon on watch; he’s at that moral level. I don’t think baboon language is complex enough to permit them to discuss such abstract notions as “morality” or “duty” or “loyalty” — but it is evident that baboons DO operate morally and DO exhibit the traits of duty and loyalty; we see them in action. Call it “instinct” if you like — but remember that assigning a name to a phenomenon does not explain it.
"But that baboon behavior can be explained in evolutionary terms. Evolution is a process that never stops. Baboons who fail to exhibit moral behavior do not survive; they wind up as meat for leopards. Every baboon generation has to pass this examination in moral behavior; those who bilge it don’t have progeny. Perhaps the old bull of the tribe gives lessons. . .but the leopard decides who graduates — and there is no appeal from his decision. We don’t have to understand the details to observe the outcome; Baboons behave morally — for baboons.
"The next level in moral behavior higher than that exhibited by the baboon is that in which duty and loyalty are shown toward a group of your kind too large for an individual to know all of them. We have a name for that. It is called “patriotism.”
"Behaving on a still higher moral level were the astronauts who went to the Moon, for their actions tend toward the survival of the entire race (sic) of mankind. The door they opened leads to hope that h. sapiens will survive indefinitely long, even longer than this solid planet on which we stand tonight. As a direct result of what they did, it is now possible that the human race (sic) will NEVER die."
- from Robert A. Heinlein's address to the Naval Academy, "The Pragmatics of Patriotism"
the agreement between their approaches to life, in
my youthful mind, was very harmonious. Thank
You for bringing this quote to us, Hiraghm! -- j
p.s. I just found the entire text, I think ........!
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1165294...
p.p.s. read it -- dated, but great. Thanks Again!
"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."
Wise American.
I stay loyal to the country, not to the institutions or to those who currently lead them.
Thank you for bringing that book back to my memory.
To me it means loyalty to an Ideal. E pluribus unum... the coming together of many to embrace a common set of principles. To assimilate into one group, respecting the benefits and principles that the founders in their wisdom provided us. Those basic principles and a culture that once reached a pinnacle that was the envy of Liberty loving people around the world, where peace and prosperity could flourish while those that came here respected those principles and worked hard to fit in and make them work for themselves. This is a a rosy picture, I know, but it is the American Dream and that is what I am loyal to.
Respectfully,
O.A.
E Pluribus Unum
to
E Plurius Pandemonium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irZi18VR...
I'd add to your definition of the American Dream the knowledge that a persons ambition and handwork will lead to success no matter where he/she started out in life.
When anyone passes on (dies), regardless of afterlife, the ONLY things that persevere are offspring, Nation, and legacy of works. If you care for one - offspring, then the other 'Nation' is something you value since its the one lasting thing you can hope to pass on to future generations in your line.