Comments on: Is Patriotism Manly?

By: Gene

Gene — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:44:48 +0000

Patriotism is the core of manliness. Patriotism is a willingness to protect hearth and home from invasion; the rest is merely organization.

By: YJ

YJ — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 21:42:55 +0000

Patriotism is manly. Jingoism is not. As an American who actually lived for a long time in a developing country I have seen so many things that people at home take for granted but are really achievements to be be proud of. Having said that, shutting off all feedback because you are convinced that your nation is the greatest is definitely not manly because one of the greatest tests of manliness is humility (not to be confused with lack of self respect or lack of self esteem). Hence proved!

By: Zane

Zane — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:51:13 +0000

it’s neither to me, always look out for number one i say. let everyone else burn. my parents had the nerve to conceive in Australia, doesnt make me proud to be an australian as im resting on the laurels of other men, i havent done anything to improve the place. I’d feel the same way if i was born in America, France or Afghanistan.
Again, look out for you and yours. It’s all you owe anybody.

By: EJ

EJ — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:36:10 +0000

A love for your country without straying into jingoistic nationalism is manly, blind loyalty is not.

Most of the self-confessed patriots I’ve met from the US and my country (Scotland)seem to possess the ignorant, insular and blinkered “with-us-or-against-us” attitude which attracts so much derision from those outside the Anglosphere.

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:13:35 +0000

I’m gonna have to say no. As Voltaire says, “It is lamentable, that to be a patriot one must become an enemy of the rest of the world.”

There are bigger things than boundaries and nominal territories.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:04:56 +0000

Yes, Patriotism is incredibly manly. Patriotism gives you a sense of what your country should hold it’s self up to. It lets you know when your country strays from its righteous path into a path of discontent and perversion of it’s self. Love for your country and what it stands for is just as manly as loving your family and what it stands for.

By: hillmatt

hillmatt — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:03:48 +0000

Serving your country is manly, blindly supporting your country without questioning anything that goes on is stupid and un-American.

By: Darren Meyer

Darren Meyer — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:11:16 +0000

Hm, a lot of the nay-sayers seem to be coming down on the fools who will stand behind their government even when that government is making terrible mistakes. The thing is, that’s not patriotism — the people doing that might *think* they’re patriots, but they aren’t.

Patriotism is the love of one’s COUNTRY, not its government or its decisions. I live in the US, and I’m proud to live here. I also think our government of late has gotten out of hand with its security theater, its attempts to protect people from themselves, and so on.

My country is the people that live and work in it — so being patriotic means, in part, trying to make my country a better place for its people. Sometimes (a lot, actually), that means speaking out against the current government; and, ultimately, voting in a new one.

By: MarkR

MarkR — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:14:05 +0000

Please forgive me for posting on an older thread, and, as I haven’t read all of the comments yet, if this has been brought up before.

Mark Twain said, “Loyalty to the country always, loyalty to the government when it deserves it.” It seems to me if you substitute patriotism for loyalty in his quote, you have a pretty good way of approaching this.

I think it is very “manly” to support the ideals on which our country was founded and which have developed over our history. However, blindly following demogogues and charlatans who misuse these ideals, be they in government or elsewhere, is not.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:56:11 +0000

Patriotism is manly. The Founding Fathers were manly men, and patriots. Yet if they had exhibited “blind patriotism,” they would likely not have begun the revolution at all, being completely loyal to mother England.