WHAT IS PATRIOTISM?

WHAT IS PATRIOTISM?

Some people have love of country confused with love of government
or the people in the government.

They further confuse this love with obedience to one's government,
right or wrong.

Remember "America, love it or leave it!"?

This was the slogan of the Nixonites who thought that anyone who
was opposed to the Vietnam war was opposed to America and thus a
traitor.

Nixon actually wanted to treat them as such!

How much hubris, arrogance, vanity and conceit can one heart hold?

Love of country is very much like love of one's high school, or
football team. "Our country is the best, go America" is like our high
school is the best.

Not only is it stupid, its bullshit and insulting to lots of other
people who love their country too.

Time to grow up, eh?

Whatever happened to love for Earth?

When will a president say "God Bless Earth!"

That said, love of country can be broken down into at least 3
separate things, not one of which is love for its government.

First is love for the land and its resources.

Second is love for its people, culture and traditions, not to
mention abilities, achievements and accomplishments.

Third is love for the principles for which the country stands.

For America those principles are:

1.) Freedom of speech

2.) Rights to privacy.

3.) Freedom of the press

4.) Freedom of congregation (so one can speak and publish)

5.) Freedom of Religion

6.) Separation of Church and State

7.) Rule by law, not local caprice, whim, fancy or greed.

8.) Freedom of Vote

9.) Freedom to remove the government forthwith should it try to
abridge the first 8.

With every freedom comes responsibilities.

Freedom of speech means freedom to speak the truth as you see it,
it does not mean freedom to knowingly speak lies or bear false witness.

Freedom to speak also means freedom to not listen, which means
there is a time and a place for speech, public forums etc, and that such
speech should not be enforced on one at inappropriate times.

Freedom to speak is also sometimes criticized during times of war.

The idea is we need to put on a unified face to the enemy even if
we are not unified.

Showing unity where there is none produces a hypocrisy which is
particularly evil when done at the point of a gun.

On the other hand ongoing discussion about the wisdom of any war
most needs to continue during the war, because continuing a war that is
wrong is folly, regardless of desiring to save face.

NEEDING TO SAVE FACE AFTER BEING WRONG IS THE DOWNFALL OF A BEING,
IF HE TRIES TO SAVE FACE BY NOT ADMITTING HE WAS WRONG AND CONTINUING TO
DO THE WRONG THING.

Freedom of privacy assures us that not only do we have freedom to
speak publically to anyone at large, but also privately amongst our own
friends, in case we don't want other's at large to know.

Freedom to speak openly and privately are the keys to a politically
sane society. Unfortunately market forces tend to try to stop people
from speaking openly or privately.

There are only one set of comm lines in the world, they are all the
ways that people can speak to each other.

These comm lines have two completely different distinct usages,
often at odds with each other.

The first use is political, that means people use these comm lines
to discuss the design of society and its markets. For political
discussions to remain honest, freedoms to speak openly, privately and
anonymously are a must.

But the second use of comm lines is to operate the markets after
they have been designed. Then speaking openly (trading mp3's of music
for example) violates desired restrictions on freedom of speach put
there by the music owners.

Even trading mp3's privately with encryption comes under attack.

Thus one has to be eternally vigilent that the market forces do not
subvert the communications lines of the world to their own selfish
intents at the expense of the body politic trying to design a society
worthy of living in.

A cop in every computer to stop child porn, copyright violations
and terrorists talking to each other would not produce the utopia one
might expect.

This is in part because criminals find safety by bubbling up into
higher and higher levels of power, particularly in the government and
police force.

When lawmakers outlaw criminals, criminals become lawmakers.

Eventually all those cops in every computer and every bed room
which you put there to protect you against criminals, ARE criminals, and
are owned and operated by criminals in power, and YOU are kept at bay
and fed double think at the point of a gun which you are paying for with
your taxes, and which you must pay because of the gun pointing at you.

Women in particular need to watch where their future sons are
heading, as working where the money is, is alluring. The son does it,
joins the police state, because he is then better able to take care of
his mother in her old age.

Women in general haven't come up to taking full responsibility for
their sons and how they turn out. Women have a hard time picturing what
an ideal man really ought to be, and thus fail in producing worthy
leaders of women and their children.

When you take a look at how women are treated around the world, it
can be appalling. Most of this is from suppression of women by men who
themselves are sub civilized,

Your typical Islamic mother says to her son early on, "Little
Najib, when you grow up, you will be, Allah willing, a real *ASSHOLE*!"

But in the end the men turn out as they do because of the women who
raised them.

What would happen if all women all over the planet simply went on
strike and refused to have any more children until things changed for
them?

Think on this long and hard, the glib quick answers are unworthy.

Freedom of the press runs pretty much the same way, the press tends
to be controlled by its advertisers, but that's way different than being
controlled by the government. For example after 9/11 Bill Maher took
exception to a lot of very stupid people calling the terrorists cowards.
He thought it took exceptional nerve and faith to fly a plane into a
building at 300 miles an hour and not flinch.

He commented that if you wanted to see cowardice in action, one
should contemplate Clinton's tossing a few cruise missles at terrorists
camps from a very long safe distance away, after earlier terrorist
attacks on the Cole.

Even though his comment was directed at CLINTON, it was close
enough to impugning the courage of the military to take real action, and
thus his show was pulled by the network. The networks pulled the show
because the advertisers complained, because their BUYERS complained, not
because the government complained.

Just like lawyers can't stand lawyer jokes, and Jews can't stand
Jewish jokes, the military can't stand military jokes. Each tries to
elect itself a protected species in direct violation of most of the
freedom principles above.

Freedom of congregation, either on the streets, or in private
residences or on the internet is important because it is congregation
that allows one to speak to one another, and practice our religions.

Freedom to congregate includes open congregation and private
congregation.

Freedom of religion is somewhat problematic in that most religions
should be wiped off the face of the Earth as soon as possible. But it
can't be the government that does it!

That said, there is nothing more insane than a religious bigot, and
nothing more dangerous than a religious bigot with the force and power
of the military and police behind him.

Thus while the people must be allowed to worship whatever devils
they admire most, absolute separation of church and state must be
ensured at all times.

Once the insanity of religious bigotry gets into power as the
government, the country and perhaps the planet are on their way out.

Once a being gets the idea that others are going to hell forever,
they will inevitably take what ever actions are necessary to make it so,
'to help God out'.

"Hey if this asshole is going to hell forever anyhow, why not hurry
him along!"

Also most of these nutcases hate their lives on Earth, but they
consider suicide a mortal sin, so the only way to get to Heaven is to
hurry along the armegeddon process, and hope God doesn't notice how they
gave it a little push.

In truth most believe that armegeddon is NECESSARY to their final
salvation. This puts them into a kind of apathy about avoiding it,
because it's God's will, and they don't want to be opposed to God, and
they don't believe they could oppose God even if they wanted to.

There are also those that are so afraid of temptation and
committing a mortal sin for which they will never be forgiven for, that
the sooner they can find a way to die the more likely they will get to
Heaven and their 40 virgins.

Further if they can die fighting in a just cause against the
Heathens, then God will forgive them for any accrued non mortal sins
they might have committed in the first few years of their life.

Thus you have suicide bombers, and little children who can't wait
to pick up a gun for the cause, or those who just want to kill as many
of the enemy as possible in one blow, just in case God is keeping count.

They don't care if they grow up or blow up.

They don't care if they leave the Earth growing green or glowing
green.

Green grass, or green glass, which is it gonna be?

But you know, when they get to heaven, its not quite what they
thought it would be. Ever taken a look at their women?

Of those 40 virgins, 30 have mustaches the size of Wild Bill
Hickock, and the other 10 are diesel dykes from hell.

There's a reason they're are still virgins.

Rule by law is important, because it means that people are judged
by an objective eye that applies the same to everyone. The personal
caprice, fancy, whim and greed of the local population or even the judge
or sheriff generally can not rule the day.

Even little children in public schools now are spanked by
professional elected spankers, to make sure the punishment is fair and
evenly applied.

There are however two different laws, the law of the land and the
law of the sky.

The PURPOSE of the law of the land is to constrain the government,
not the people.

We don't like people stealing things from us, so we hire a
professional system of justice and enforcement. Mob justice is
notoriously bad and errant for a society, and having objective
professionals handle the bad guys from beginning to end is much more
sensible.

For one the guy robbed YOU, not the cop that comes to grab him, so
the cop can treat him with respect while you want to rip his eyes out.

Objective determination of guilt, and administration of punishment
is an important part of a sane society. The bad guys get it in fair and
reasonable measure, and few good guys get it by mistake.

Oh yes, it doesn't always work out that way, but try Russia
sometime, or Cambodia if you are looking for something better.

The law of the land however is not written to constrain anyone from
robbing you, it is written to constrain the professional government
which you have hired to protect you.

Notice the law doesn't say 'Thou shalt not steal', the law says IF
you steal, then the law can come after you and impose imprisonment of
not less than x time and not more than y time.

THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW IS NOT TO CONSTRAIN THE SOVEREIGN CITIZEN,
BUT TO CONSTRAIN THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO THE SOVEREIGN CITIZEN.

The law of the land is entirely what the government can and can not
do in response to someone doing something bad to you.

The citizen is not in any sense at all morally bound to follow the
law of the land at any time, the government is. The people in
government have SWORN to uphold the constitution and laws of the land,
and thus they must do so, right or wrong.

The citizen has made no such swear of allegiance, except perhaps
for immigrants who don't have a choice, but the people in government
have sworn an allegiance to the law. They have sworn to uphold the law
of the land right or wrong.

The citizen however does have a duty to obey the law of the sky.

When you die and get to the Pearly Gates, Gabriel will NOT be
asking you if you lived within the law. Gabriel will be asking you if
you did what was RIGHT.

Would the world be a better place if everyone obeyed all laws of
the land all the time?

One's moral mandate is to do what is right first, and what is legal
second.

When the law of the land is in conflict with the law of the sky,
you have a choice to make.

If you do what is legal instead of what is right, when you get to
heaven you won't get a gold star, but a brown star, for sh*thead.

Notice that breaking a law from moral mandate won't stop the
government from coming after you, the law of the land doesn't recognize
the law of the sky, although it tries to.

In fact the law of the land is an imperfect human coding of the law
of the sky.

But often the law of the land is incomplete, or has had laws added
into it by criminals and thus are themselves criminal laws.

When laws are incomplete, people can do wrong, but consider it ok,
because it isn't illegal.

When laws have criminal laws added into them, people will consider
something criminal just because it is illegal, when in fact it isn't
criminal at all.

Both of the above are called 'hiding behind the law':

Hiding behind the law means:

What the law says makes it right.

What the law says makes it wrong.

Criminality does not equal illegality, and trying to make it so is
in fact criminal.

Just because something is criminal doesn't mean it is illegal, and
just because something is illegal, doesn't mean it is criminal.

Illegality is defined by the law of the land.

Criminality is defined by the law of the sky.

God doesn't care about legality, God cares about criminality.

Hiding behind the law means judging what is right or wrong by
whether it is legal or illegal.

Some people will go absolutely nuts on you if you try to persude
them that criminality has an existence independent of the law, even
though the dictionary has it right there, 2.) morally bankrupt.

Freedom to vote is the last big one. Our fathers realized that a
true democracy, where majority vote ruled, would not work, mostly
because the masses are too stupid to know what is good for them, and
also because of the time lags that existed at the time to inform the
masses of the issues that needed handling.

Thus instead of a true democracy, we have a Republic, where people
are allowed to vote for representatives in the House and Senate, but are
not allowed to vote directly on matters of law.

It is assumed in this model that the senators and representatives
are in fact in touch with the masses they represent and either follow
their will, or at least have their true best interests in mind if they
don't follow the will of the masses.

Again this is the idea of professionalism at work, if we try to
make decisions about laws our selves, things will go to hell quickly,
but if we allow objective full time professionals make these decisions
for us, we will do better. We just have to pick our professionals
wisely.

And there in comes the rub.

America is truly a great country, not only because of its land and
people, but because of its written law and constitution keeping everyone
else in line who would seek power to their own ends.

In truth the people in America are not that much saner or less evil
or selfish than in other countries, although sometimes one has to wonder
if China isn't a dumping ground for assholes, and Russia a dumping
ground for paranoid nutcakes.

But if people are people, then the only thing that makes America
better is its rule by law and constitution, which keep the assholes and
miscreant sh*theads in line.

You know it might seem harsh to call some of our duly elected
representatives sh*theads, but when 9/11 happened there was a very
definite contingent of elected officials on the far right that wanted to
nuke Iraq and Iran off the face of the Earth.

They would sacrifice the lives of 100's of millions of innocent
people just to quiet a few boners.

All those innocent people are going to hell forever anyhow for
bowing and praying to false Messiahs and falser Gods, so who cares.

"Kill them all and let God sort out the few good ones." - American
Sh*thead on TV during 9/11.

Unfortunately when a country like America is infiltrated by
assholes and sh*theads, the country itself becomes a kind of outhouse
for their miscreant behavior.

Thus America may be the best outhouse on the planet, but its still
just an outhouse, you see?

You can ask how these assholes get into office, and in truth they
are elected there by people very much like them. I have many friends
who also thought we should nuke Iran and Iraq forthwith after 9/11 and
told me that's what Jesus would do.

So apparently lots of little assholes elect big assholes into
office.

The last freedom is the freedom to remove the government by force
if necessary should the government try to abridge the basic principles
of the country.

This means the right to keep and bear arms.

We all hate guns, but the sad truth is that when the police force
and army are so strong relative to the populace at large that the
government couldn't be removed if we wanted to, then a police state has
started to flower and WILL continue to flower until it overruns all of
civilization like a choking weed.

A police state means you pay taxes to keep the gun pointing at you
so you have to pay taxes, while doing the bidding of your slave master,
or digging your own grave.

Which brings us to the last part of this posting which answers the
question of what does it mean to be unpatriotic.

Patriotism means love of land, people and principles.

It's hard not to love the land, and some of the people, but its
really the principles that matter.

Unpatriotism means to not love or to try to undermine the basic
principles for which the country stands.

Patriotism does not mean love of or for government, and it
certainly does not mean obedience or loyalty to government right or
wrong.

Those that criticize the government even during time of war, are
not unpatriotic. Those that try to silence the critics are. THEY are
the UNAmercian assholes that need to be restrained by law and due
diligence to its enforcement so that the true principles of this country
can stand forever as truth, justice and the American *WAY*.

Beware the harbinger of protected species, or enforced silence, or
doublethink.

And should America or its government ever become the enemy of the
principles that America stood for, then I shall be a solider behind
enemy lines.

America, love it or change it.

Homer

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homer Wilson Smith The Paths of Lovers Art Matrix - Lightlink
(607) 277-0959 KC2ITF Cross Internet Access, Ithaca NY
homer@lightlink.com In the Line of Duty http://www.lightlink.com

Thu Dec 13 19:23:56 EST 2007