Patriotism is love of country. I love my wife, too, and would defend her with my life if she were attacked. That doesn’t mean I think she is the best wife in the world, intrinsically superior to ever other woman on earth, that I think she’s always right, that I never argue with her, or take her side every time she is in dispute with someone else (although I always try to give her the benefit of the doubt). And the same goes in regard to her love for me. Imagine what it would look like if someone loved their spouse in the same way that they show their “patriotism” for their country: chanting her name, putting her picture conspicuously on their car, or on a billboard over their place of business … I don’t call any of that patriotism. I call is egotism writ large, and vanity.
Patriotism is love of country. I love my wife, too, and would defend her with my life if she were attacked. That doesn’t mean I think she is the best wife in the world, intrinsically superior to ever other woman on earth, that I think she’s always right, that I never argue with her, or take her side every time she is in dispute with someone else (although I always try to give her the benefit of the doubt). And the same goes in regard to her love for me. Imagine what it would look like if someone loved their spouse in the same way that they show their “patriotism” for their country: chanting her name, putting her picture conspicuously on their car, or on a billboard over their place of business … I don’t call any of that patriotism. I call is egotism writ large, and vanity.