Delicate cluster! flag of teeming life! Covering all my lands—all my sea-shores lining! Flag of death! (how I watch'd you through the smoke of battle pressing! How I heard you flap and rustle, cloth defiant!) Flag cerulean—sunny flag, with the orbs of night dappled! Ah my silvery beauty—ah my woolly white and crimson! Ah to [...]
Is the true patriot one who is committed to supporting and preferring the actions of his country simply because they are the actions of his country? Or is a real patriot one who loves his country because he loves the common project her citizens pursue?… During his inaugural address, President Donald Trump stated, “From this day [...]
There is something more dangerous than secularism, and that is a nation-state masquerading as God incarnate… Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion, by David Gelernter (Doubleday, 2007) Midway through a century battered by ideological warfare, C.S. Lewis thought it unnecessary to remind anyone that “love of one’s country… becomes a demon when it becomes a [...]
In this secular age, the fact that Mel Gibson did not shy away from the reality that the hero of "Hacksaw Ridge" was a conservative, Bible-believing Christian makes the film all the more astounding. Mel Gibson’s new film, Hacksaw Ridge continues the controversial actor and director’s taste for gusto, guts, and glory. From Mad Max [...]
Look Homeward, America, by Bill Kauffman Bill Kauffman is not ashamed to be an American. In fact, he loves his country, though he is also at pains to explain precisely what “America” it is that he loves: There are two Americas: the televised America, known and hated by the world, and the rest of us. [...]
Patriotism and Public Spirit: Edmund Burke and the Role of the Critic in Mid-18th Century Britain, is a groundbreaking study of the great political philosopher Edmund Burke. The book provides a scholarly advancement of existing knowledge regarding Burke and the intellectual milieu that was so important to his development as a thinker. Chapter one offers an [...]
Patriotism exhibits an unarticulated agreement with Aristotle’s great and challenging assertion that “all men are by nature political animals.” According to Aristotle, humanity in full flourishing requires the goods that a political community affords—the material goods of sustenance, shelter, protection by an organized defense, and the less quantifiable goods of education, the bonds of [...]
Patriotism is the wholesome, constructive love of one’s land and people. Nationalism is the unhealthy love of one’s government, accompanied by the aggressive desire to put down others—which becomes in deracinated modern men a substitute for religious faith. Patriotism is an appropriate, indeed necessary, sentiment for people who wish to preserve their freedom; nationalism is [...]