To you and me, "patriotism" means loyalty to a particular land and people.
To the establishment, patriotism has nothing whatsoever to do with either this land or this people. To the establishment, "patriotism" means loyalty to the system. To them, loyalty equals obedience, and "patriotism" means a willingness to obey.
Please follow me carefully here, for this is critical: To you and me the word "patriotism" means that you and I are being loyal to our own people and to ourselves. That is the absolute opposite of what the word "patriotism" means to the media, the government, and other ruling institutions.
To you and me, patriotism is the principle stated in the only statement of purpose Americans ever adopted, the Preamble to the United States Constitution. America, it says, is "We the people," and its only purpose is to obtain liberty and the pursuit of happiness for ourselves and our posterity.
There could not be a clearer statement of what the establishment says patriotism is NOT than the Preamble to the United States Constitution. To understand this clearly, we need only look at the definition of the "establishment" again. "The establishment is the group that owns the present system and the means of persuasion and violence (which is another means of persuasion) that enforces it." The establishment insists that American freedom and prosperity have nothing to do with you and me. American freedom and prosperity exists entirely because of the system we live under, the one that belongs to the establishment.
So America is not a great place to live because of you and me. America is a great place to live because of the SYSTEM you and I live UNDER.
With this firmly in mind, if you listen carefully to the present drumbeat for "patriotism" you will see what I mean.
If you listen closely you will notice that when the establishment uses the word "patriot," it always means the exact opposite of what you and I and the Founding Fathers always took that word to mean. - THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE