PW Botha & His Henchmen Excluded

"I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone"

These were the last words of Edith Cavell who was executed by firing squad for helping allied soldiers to escape from Brussels to neutral territory in Holland during World War I. I spotted them on a poster in the window of a bank on Fleet Street in London when I was out for lunch the other day. And they got me thinking...

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"

I guess this is where the whole patriotism thing started for me - John F. Kennedy uttered these words on the day I was born. Noble sentiments to be sure (if a little treacly), but for a young lad like myself, but it was all downhill from there I'm afraid. I was born in Apartheid South Africa and grew up without a patriotic bone in my body. How could one possibly respect THAT flag, feel anything but revulsion for THAT national anthem and identify with any of THOSE national symbols?

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it"

Or so said George Bernard Shaw. I think his theory operationalises, and I seem to support the alternative hypothesis. In my formative years I was deeply embarrassed by my country. In the sanctions era "my" flag was an embarrassment, "Die Stem van Suid Afrika" (a.k.a. "The Call of South Africa") belonged to supporters of the fascist regime, and national symbols like the springbok for me personified the racist totalitarian state in which I lived. Suffice it to say, it was an uncomfortable and sometimes scary place.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross"

This quote is credited to Sinclair Lewis. I travel to the USA fairly regularly on business and during George Bush’s term of office, I think fascism has arrived. I am terrified by the flag-waving Christian Taliban, their theory of "intelligent design" (i.e. their attempt to get people to accept the Genesis creation myth as fact) and their apparent quest to eschew science and technology, and drag us all into a new Dark Age. But I’ve seen it all before – this is how it was in the Old South Africa. When good science clashed with Biblical fundamentalist beliefs, science lost every time. I know graduates of the National Christian Education brainwashing machine who still scoff at fossils saying "How do you know they’re not just normal stones created by chance?" These patriots were the same people who supported a government that censored (and frequently banned) music, films, books, magazines, the press, people and groups who saw the world differently to them. Scary times indeed…

"Patriotism ruins history"

Goethe hit the nail on the head! And I’m tired and it’s time for bed.

Later, MAlfaRK