uring the Gulf War, every other person on Berkeley campus was wearing a button or carrying a slogan of some sort urging peace. The most eloquent came from a boy who simply wrote with black marker “Why fight?” in block letters across the back of his jacket. More folks should have asked that question, then as well as today. What were we really fighting for? For access to oil? For patriotism? What is patriotism?

he concept of Patriotism doesn’t make sense to me. I can understand the human need to bask in sentiments of this sort, which in some ways are similar to many people’s passion for pep rallies and football games. It’s part of human nature to identify yourself with a community or club while differentiating it from others. On the other hand, not all aspects of human nature should be preserved or encouraged. Patriotism means loyalty to the patrie, or Vaterland. ('...über alles,' anyone?) However, it’s also a sentiment of exclusion, chauvinism, and selfishness; it sets you apart from other human beings. It suggests that as a patriot, you should love a particular geo-political entity under which you live, to the exclusion of other entities (often this may also mean your own immediate community or neighbourhood), because the former is somehow better than the latter. Just the fact that you live there somehow makes it better and more worthwhile? (The reasons why your political entity that you just happen to find yourself living in is somehow better have never been adequately revealed to me. George Bush keeps mentioning freedom these days, but at this day and age, at the beginning of the 21st century, that's like motels advertising their air conditioning and free HBO. In other words, big fucking deal! Freedom is a right that you should expect to have in a civilised society. Besides, all this talk about freedom is such bullshit when you consider the fact that the Administration is actually destroying it left and right with the PATRIOT act. I can't think of anything more damaging to our liberties and to our Constitution. Exactly what kind of freedom is George Bush trying to defend?) Ultimately, patriotism a sentiment that should be outgrown when we become adults. More specifically and insidiously, patriotism intrinsically sets you apart from people, who for one reason or another, perhaps by fate or karma, somehow ended up living in a different nation or in a different part of the world than you. Patriotism intensifies and celebrates these ultimately arbitrary divisions among peoples, and more insidiously, it implies that you should care more about the people who live in the same political unit as you. Why should loyalty to one's nation be any more important than that to humanity and the planet itself? The worst crimes against the human race in history have been in the name of nationalism (yes, religion did come pretty close). Didn't we learn anything from Nuremberg?

here's nothing wrong to have pride in your neighbourhood, city, state, or country. It's fun to celebrate it. To channel that enthusiasm into improving your community is even better. However, it indeed becomes a problem when you use that pride to denigrate, exclude, oppress, exploit, and kill your fellow human beings. That's what the Bush administration is doing. President Bush is dividing people like never before. To him, it's us against them. You're either with us or against us. You're either Christian or evil infidels. Bush's talk about freedom is complete insincere bullshit. As a right-wing Christian, he wants to take freedom away from people who aren't, at home and abroad. He has no respect for the Constitution. He does not understand the separation between church and state. He has no sense of decency because he's blinded by his right-wing Christian ideology. These days, I feel like I'm waking up to a nightmare every morning where we as Americans actually live in a Christian theocracy under George Bush. He leads the American Taliban regime.

eedless to say, patriotism inherently mixes badly with intellectual curiosity, particularly with regard to other cultures and other similarly arbitrary geo-political entities abroad. It's understandable to have a sense of fondness for a particular place and its people, but what does that have to do with political borders? Do the lack of borders somehow compromise that fondness? Why do we need borders? I’m not arguing against improving the lives of people in you immediate community, but I don’t see how loyalty to some arbitrary concept, such as the United States, would do humanity as a whole any good. This doesn't mean I don't like America; I very much like it as a place, often populated by interesting, compassionate, generous, and talented people of all backgrounds. The scenary around here is usually not too shabby either. Let's face it, we're sitting on a pretty amazing piece of real estate. We've also got a fairly nifty constitution that guarantees the basics while providing a generally effective framework that allows us to govern ourselves. I just don't care much for it as a political entity. The world doesn’t need any more absurd concepts to divide people. We’ve got more than enough hatred for each to go around already. Again, it seems to me to be a very childish, albeit natural, sentiment, and I’m glad that I’ve outgrown it like I’ve outgrown pep rallies. Instead, I reckon the world would be a much better place if everyone would have patriotism for planet earth. We would be loyal to the protection of the natural environment and of the human race, whether next door, across the street, or an ocean away, instead of some silly and arbitrary political unit. Imagine how cool our world would be without nations. Imagine a world with more folks like John Lennon or Albert Einstein, and nobody the likes of John Ashcroft.

19 April 2002