Comments on: Patriotism and Education

By: john spiri

john spiri — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:08:42 +0000

Thanks all for your comments. Erroll, I am familiar with Derrick Jensen’s writing, like it very much, and have been influenced by it. I certainly would like to see the book you mention. bozh, I agree with you–but don’t forget parents. Jim, funny I would write *what* while living overseas? About the situation in Japan where I have 13 years experience, or America where I lived for over 30 years? Concrete man, identifying the “Zionists” as “the problem” is contrary to the point of the essay. And, from my point of view, it’s not a matter of patriotism or nationalism “going to far”–the existence of these feelings is artificial, divisive, limiting, and lead to bias, blindness and war. Josie, if only I could get Fox news to publish my piece! Their readers are who I’d love to see read it (not that it’d do any good)…

By: Concrete man

Concrete man — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:49:06 +0000

The problem is the Jews have relied on a double standard throughout the last two thousand years, your patriotism is bad but our right to be racist nationalists cannot be questioned. Of course, patriotism, or nationalism, can go too far, but the basic problem of our day is the Zionist Power Configuration and its stranglehold on our political, economic, and cultural institutions.

By: Russell Olausen

Russell Olausen — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:45:52 +0000

I wonder why nobody talks of the educational value of gambling.The hit below the belt,the debt must be paid, the love of the game ,the blind ump, take one for the team; patriotic nationalists eat this up.The Hail Mary redeams a game full of the seven deadly sins.All in and danm good indoc and not bad at getting money into the right hands.Come on you researchers, make a few bets and tell us how you feel. Oh ya pump up a few stocks, loose them on the peons for some post secondary research.Your out of the game if you kick dirt.

By: Erroll

Erroll — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:12:37 +0000

I do not know what happened to the above comment [a conspiracy theory perhaps?] but I will attempt to finish what I had written. As I was attempting to say, liberals will challenge almost anything the government says, especially a government run by neoconservatives, but for some bizarre reason that questioning does not extend to what the Bush administration has claimed happened on Sept. 11, 2001. The liberal rationale appears to be that even though Bush had lied concerning just about everything, e.g. Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the deficit, the outing of Valerie Plame, prescription drug reform, oil drilling in Alaska, terrorist threats, etc. , Bush and Cheney had suddenly decided to be honest with the American public concerning the attacks of 9/11. It would seem that the issue of patriotism is not supposed to extend to questioning the activities of the government on one of the most heinous days that the United States has ever experienced.

One remembers how Charlie Sheen was ripped apart by that liberal icon Bill Maher when Sheen pointed out, among other things, the illogical reasoning behind the Bush claim that 19 [alleged] crazed Arabs from the Middle East were somehow able to overpower the flight crews along with all the passengers on four airplanes, not with Uzi sub machine guns or pistols or machetes or blow torches, but with, of all things, box cutters. But to dare to dissent from the propaganda put forth by the Bush administration is to be practically deemed, if not unpatriotic, then most certainly insane, as stated, not from the quasi fascists of Fox “News” but rather incredibly from that revered icon of the left, Noam Chomsky. So much for the idea ofd dissent being alive and well in the land of the free.

By: Erroll

Erroll — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:52:50 +0000

Many liberals will feel that the best way to display their patriotism will be to challenge the policies of their government both domestically and regarding foreign policy. But for some bizarre reason this logical rationale does not seem to extend, at least for many liberals, to q

By: bozh

bozh — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:46:06 +0000

melissa, i almost bypassed your post. By using the word “toad” i was deliberately vague or may be lazy to go on and elucidate it. I was also thinking that nobody wld understand me even if wld enumerate some of my traits.
i’ll be brave and enumerate them: i had been intensely/sickly bashful or ashamed of myself since i cld remember and to the degree that i cldn’t look people in the eye. I did not ever talk to anyone until i was maybe 15 yrs of age. I never talked to my mom or dad and dad and mom never talked to me.
even today at age 77 i can’t say no to anyone when it comes to please people at my own expense.
or if i say no to a request i go thru much fear. Dozens and dozens of people wld put me dwn and i took it silently only to have anxiety attacks later which may last a life time because of such emotional abuse.
at times i wld go thru intense rage when i wld remember an insult. And so on. I think you get the picture.
i have been on fluvoxamine for the last few yrs and, lo and behold, it reduces my fright/rage by at least 80% during the day. At night time i do go thru some strong anxiety attacks but not as strong as before i began using fluvoxmine. tnx for your inquiry!
bozhidar balkas vancouver
yet i remember also abusing a few people

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:33:35 +0000

Funny how you would write such things while living abroad.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:38:59 +0000

Thank you for this article . . . I feel that it touches well on the underlying “force” (mandatory schooling with centralized, national curriculum) that sucks moral autonomy and courage out of us. I am certain that the souls of the U.S. population would be much more whole and inclined to defend themselves against the obvious tyranny if we weren’t taught to be obedient and wait for direction from an established “authority”. Well intentioned people and true believers have destroyed education in favor of schooling and social management.

bozh,
what does “i had been a near-total toady” mean? I am inclined to think it means that you didn’t “take” to the homogenization of schooling so well . . . ? Maybe that’s why I search for you posts, and tend to find them so sane. Peace, man.

By: bozh

bozh — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:27:24 +0000

grading people- and children especially- has been for a decade or so one of my own pet peeves.
and not, folks, because i had finished last in my class and actually dropped after three yrs of schooling.

and i quit ‘educcation’ not because i knew what was up but because i had been a near-total toady. I never got cured; but do now know what is up.

but it is not just schooling that makes slaves out of children but also clero-political discourse as well as advertising/entertainment industry, and media ‘reports’.
just 001% of the people can control mns. Or one cld say that -when hierarchy of the rulers is taken into account- 001% of the 001% can easily lead a nation of 20 mn to war let alone get people’s blessing for committing lesser iniquities tnx.

By: Erroll

Erroll — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:21:04 +0000

An excellent companion piece to this well written article would be a 2007 book entitled Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism In America’s Schools which is edited by Joel Westheimer. In it are essays such as Patriotism Is a Bad Idea at a Dangerous Time by Robert Jensen and Patriotism Makes Kids Stupid by Bill Bigelow.

By: Josie Michel-Brüning

Josie Michel-Brüning — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:09:47 +0000

Yes, dear John Spiri, you are perfectly right. One can only hope your word would be spread, especially among young people going to be recruted for war.