Chris: A dictionary definition informs us that the word “patriotism” means not simply a love of one’s country [and is "country" synonymous with "state"?], but to favor one’s own country above all others. This leads to the moral dilemma – and conflicts – noted by many others: “our” patriots go off to fight and kill “their” patriots. If patriotism is a virtue, isn’t the young man who kills and dies for the “enemy” equally virtuous and, if so, what does the vacuous Karl Rove offer to resolve that obvious dilemma?
My principal criticism of “patriotism,” however, is directed to parents who inculcate their children in such self-destructive nonsense: why do so many mothers and fathers love the state more than they do their own children?
