The Irrationality of Patriotism

Throughout history, warmongers and statists have utilized patriotism to prevent ordinary people from thinking rationally. The current incumbents in Washington provide us with a perfect example. They have used patriotism to ridicule their opposition, hide the truth, and justify wasting the lives of America's soldiers.

The warmongers used patriotism and flag-waving to convince Americans that we were attacked on 9-11 because terrorists hate our freedom and prosperity. Americans fell for this lie hook, line, and sinker. Those who dared suggest that something besides jealousy, such as, perhaps, US support for Israeli atrocities in Palestine and murderous dictators like Saddam Hussein, were dismissed as "unpatriotic" and "un-American." This was a true success for the statists, since, without their massive propaganda campaign, some Americans might have wondered just why thousands of young Muslim men are willing to kill themselves and thousands of American civilians. If people knew the real reasons, they might ask the government to stop meddling in the internal affairs of other nations: an unacceptable proposition for statists.

In the lead-up to the Iraq war, warmongers followed the same pattern. Critics of the war, like the Dixie Chicks, faced boycotts and smear campaigns. Congress patriotically poked fun at the French by changing "French fries" to "Freedom fries" on its menu and encouraging the American people to blast the French. They never bothered to tell us that France opposed the war largely because a great majority of its population did. Therefore, while claiming to be bringing democracy to the Iraqis, the warmongers were criticizing another democracy for actually following the wishes of its people. As Noam Chomsky has said, such hypocrisy and irrationality takes true talent.

Now, the warmongers use patriotism to justify staying in Iraq. We would lose national credibility, they say. We must finish the work of the fallen, they say. These lines of reasoning, based on patriotism, strike a chord with the American people. However, whenever we step away from patriotism and rationally analyze these arguments, they make no sense. Saying that we must stay in Iraq to preserve national credibility is saying that we should continue to waste the lives of our young people in a war that, even according to military experts, is already lost. To say that we must not allow those who have already died to have lost their lives in vain is to say that, to prevent them from having lost their lives in vain, more people should die in vain. How rational is that?

As has been demonstrated, patriotism promotes irrational behavior, encourages people to avoid speaking the truth, and motivates people to kill and be killed in wars for which there is no justification. Today, even as we fight a "war on terror," military recruiters admit that they rarely invoke patriotism to entice recruits, focusing instead on financial incentives. Hopefully, since my generation is more responsive to economic incentives than patriotic ones, this is a sign that Lew Rockwell is correct in his prediction that we are moving toward libertarianism, which promotes individual freedom, and away from statism and patriotism, which promote despotism and war.

July 7, 2004