de Jon's

Blind Loyalty to an Empire of Greed:
The Corruptions of Patriotism
By GLEN T. MARTIN
10/05/03

(Counterpunch) The United States administers a global
empire. This used to be a secret. Through the 1990s, our government
told us that we stood for democracy, freedom, and independence of
nations worldwide (lying to us). But the majority of U.S. citizens
refused to critically examine their government out of patriotism.
Sheeplike, we acted in defiance of the founding fathers of our nation
who distrusted the power of government, who realized that small acts
of terrorism (which existed then as now) were nothing compared to the
potential for tyranny from those who wield governmental powers.

From the late 1940s to the 1990s, most citizens of the U.S. thought
that patriotism meant blind faith in the pronouncements of our
leaders, even when the public statements of Truman, Eisenhower,
Kennedy, Nixon, Johnson, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton were
shown by a few decent and honest critics in this country to be one
lie after another. They told us we stood for "democracy" against
the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union and people (like children)
wanted to be patriotic and believe the lies from Washington.

Meanwhile the U.S. government secretly overthrew the democratic
governments in Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, carpet bombed
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the 1960s and 70s, helped install a
dictator in Indonesia in 1965 (at the cost of half a million lives),
overthrew the democratic government of Chile in 1973 and destroyed
the democratic government of Nicaragua with a terrorist army based in
Honduras in the 1980s. The list goes on and on, and any informed,
honest citizen will be well aware of it.

But such blind patriotism destroys democracy and corrupts the people
who blindly follow their corrupt and deceitful leaders. Today, we
reap the whirlwind, the judgment of God, so to speak, the
consequences of our trashing the vision of the founding fathers. For
today, our leaders no longer keep it a secret. They openly admit and
act on the truth that the United States runs a brutal, world-wide
empire based on the immense military might of the Pentagon and the
immense domination of U.S. multinational corporations over the global
economy.

The Bush government does not even try to cover up its lies. It simply
makes all public records that would expose its lies "top secret." It
openly censors and suppresses the truth, and we do not care because
our patriotism has corrupted us to this sorry extent. They know they
can count on the loyality of the majority of the U.S. who are
willingly coopted by the thinnest and most transparent tissue of lies.

We openly invade sovereign nations, ignoring the United Nations and
world opinion. We led NATO to do this to Yugoslavia in 1998 (killing
many more innocent civilians than were killed in the 9/11 attacks on
the World Trade Center). We bombed the towns and villages of
Afghanistan, destroying more homes and lives or poor, innocent
peasants (men, women, and children) in that bleeding country than
were killed during 9/11. And we openly invaded, conquered, and
established a military dictatorship in Iraq in defiance of world
opinion and the United Nations, again killing thousands more innocent
civilians than were killed in 9/11.

Democracy has its moral basis in truth, tolerance, freedom, and
respect for human dignity. These are all universal values. If we are
loyal to these universal values, then we cannot at the same time be
blindly loyal to one government or nation. We corrupted ourselves
with our blind patriotism of the late 1940s to 1990s to the point
where patriotism today most often means openly supporting the empire
(under self-serving lies like "liberating Iraq"), the oppression of
freedom worldwide, global economic exploitation and domination, and
even the suppression of freedom at home.

Those honest people who believe in universal values should not
attempt to redefine "patriotism" so that it looks as if holding
universal values is what is "really" patriotic. We need to repudiate
that term. Decent and honest people resist the empire out of
universal moral values, out of justice, not out of patriotism. It is
universal values like justice and compassion that make us human.
Patriotism only divides us from our suffering brothers and sisters
worldwide.

Our war against the poor majority in Colombia who are struggling for
a decent society used to be covered up under the lie of a "war on
drugs." Today, in Colombia, we send ever more billions of dollars in
weapons and training to the country with the worst human rights
record of the past three decades while openly declaring that we are
trying to crush its revolution. We no longer hide our global lust for
world-wide domination. Patriotism corrupts, and absolute patriotism
corrupts absolutely.

Recently, our unelected, dictatorial President George W. Bush visited
Africa, beginning with the country of Senegal in West Africa.
According to one Senegal witness, just before his visit 1500 people
were arbitrarily arrested and jailed for the duration of his visit.
U.S. military planes flew over the capital city of Dakar night and
day so the people could not even sleep for the noise. About 700 U.S.
security personnel arrived with their dogs, their own cars, and high-
tech equipment. They would not even let Senegal security personnel
near the U.S. President.

Bush even brought his own armchair and furniture and would not use
Senegal furnishings. All trees in places where Bush passed were cut
down, some of them over 100 years old. All roads going downtown
(where schools, hospitals, and businesses are located) were closed
down during his visit. People were not allowed to go to school, the
hospital, or work. The list of indignities continues. One Senegal
economist estimated that this poor country lost an immense amount of
money by being shut down in this way by the visit of the American
President.

The message, of course, was that the United States is the world
dominator and that these poor and weak countries are in effect ours
to do what we want with. The arrogance and lack of respect for the
people of Senegal are astonishing. These arrangements remind one
distinctly of Caesar, Napoleon, the Czar, Hitler, or Stalin. They are
the actions of world dominators surveying the empire with utter
disdain for the people whose lives and economies they crush.

Any informed person knows that Bush and his junta are utterly
corrupt. They openly assign multi-billion dollar contracts to their
former business partners without any competitive bidding. They openly
represent the big oil companies in Alaska, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
They openly oppose environmental regulations for their friends in big
business. They openly lie. They openly defy world opinion and invade
any country they please.

The really sad part is that our absolute patriotism has corrupted us:
we, the people in the United States. We are no longer outraged by
anything our government does. We are blindly obedient and, therefore,
have thrown away the moral basis of our existence as human beings and
as a country. That moral basis rested on loyalty to the universal
values of truth, tolerance, freedom, and respect for human dignity.
Blind patriotism, loyalty, and obedience to one nation or government
are not legitimate moral values. As a nation, we have corrupted
ourselves absolutely.

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Glen T. Martin is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at
Radford University in Southwest Virginia and President of
International Philosophers for Peace.
from: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5534.htm
Copyright: Glen T. Martin