By Gary D. Barnett

“America’s state religion, is ‘patriotism,’ a phenomenon which has convinced many of the citizenry that ‘treason’ is morally worse than murder or rape.”

~ William Blum

One meaningless jingoistic cliché I am subjected to constantly is “I love my country.” This gibberish for the most part is pure nonsense, and is rarely defined. When most use this term, do they love the people, land, culture, or the government? My take from all my many thousands of encounters of this phrase, is that it means I love my country right or wrong, which is pure nationalism. I say this because that is what I see and hear with my own eyes and ears. This is why many raise blood-soaked flags in honor of aggressive war. This is why most will stand hatless with their hand over their heart during the ‘national’ anthem, this is why most will pledge their dying allegiance to the State, and this is why most all perpetually worship the military and those who falsely claim to ‘serve’ the people.

They rarely if ever say I love all the people, because they do not. They rarely if ever say I love the landscape, and they rarely if ever say I love the culture. This cliché is used almost entirely under the assumption that one is showing false ‘patriotism’ to the national state, which indicates agreement with what those controlling the nation-state do in their name. This includes taxation, theft, economic destruction, inflation, regulation, mass brutal enforcement, and aggressive warmongering. In other words, as mentioned earlier, they love the State, right or wrong. This attitude is pure reverent worship of the nation and government, which is the exact opposite of honest ‘patriotism.’ Hypocrisy has already taken over at this point.

This is the epitome of what is called ‘Stockholm Syndrome,’ where the ‘citizen’ (victim) forms a psychological attachment (bond) with his captor, controller, and master; in this case, the government. To see this attitude practiced in totality, one only has to watch or attend any large sporting event. As the field-sized flag is rolled out, military jets overhead, and government soldiers on the grounds, everyone is ordered to stand, remove his hat, put his hand over his heart, and bow down to the State en masse. 80,000 will all stand at once, (to not acquiesce and go along with the tamed collective herd can be risky as I have found out many times) complying with the order they have received, while acting as if in prayer to a ‘god.’ The ‘god’ they are praying to is the so-called ‘united’ states.

Read More