- Patriotism is never more needful than when your country
goes mad. And Osama bin Laden has certainly driven America mad. Every American
flag or decal on every motor vehicle is a tribute to his power. No American
president's appeal could have evoked such a response.
-
- Supporting the United States government, though a psychologically
understandable reaction to the 9/11 attack, is a misguided answer to our
needs. The Wall Street Journal has just run a long essay arguing that our
greatest wartime Presidents - Lincoln, Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt -
imposed sharp though temporary restrictions on freedom, and that similar
sacrifices of liberty to security may be necessary now.
-
- Of course it all depends on how you define "greatness."
A strong argument can be made that Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt were
our three most disastrous Presidents. All three of them helped destroy
the original American system of limited, confederated government and built
what the framers of the Constitution would call "consolidated"
- or monolithic - government.
-
- What may seem like temporary emergency measures in wartime
often turn out to be not only permanent, but more decisive for our fate
than the outcome of war itself. The real losers may be the citizens of
the victorious state.
-
- Your chance of being harmed by terrorists is remote.
That you will be oppressed by your own government is a certainty. Are we
really "citizens" anymore, in any serious sense? Or have we been
reduced, as I believe, to mere infinitesimal units of a gigantic warfare-welfare
empire, beyond our control and comprehension?
-
- Let's face it. This isn't the America Norman Rockwell
painted; he never heard of the Culture of Death. Every Trident submarine
is capable of killing more people than Stalin did, and the grand totals
in our abortion clinics are approaching Stalin's career record. Those are
only the gory statistics; I say nothing here about the moral tone of American
life.
-
- We must ask ourselves, as patriots, just what we are
supposed to be loyal to. In a conflict - not exactly a "war"
- between a Godless, lawless, unconstitutional state, alias "America,"
and an alien band of superstitious fanatics, we owe our allegiance to the
former, merely because it rules us?
-
- As patriots, we love our country. As we should. We love
our families, our neighbors, and those we recognize as our countrymen -
all those with whom we share a broad set of customs, traditions, morals,
and countless other subtle and implicit links that are difficult to spell
out.
-
- But, this is a very different thing from submitting to
the dictates of the state, which is composed of venal politicians - men
who swear on a Bible they don't believe in to uphold a Constitution they
have no respect for.
-
- Such men will sell us out in a flash. They always have,
they always will. Yet in times of crisis, real or supposed, they expect
us to rally behind them. If we don't, we are un-American. And the worst
of it is that in an awful way they are sincere. They really think they
represent all that is best in this country. They imagine they establish
their bona fides by uttering bromides about "freedom" and "democracy"
and imprecations against "terrorism."
-
- A country is most likely to be betrayed by its own rulers.
Roosevelt did this country more harm than any declared enemy ever did;
not content with that, he betrayed much of what was left of Christendom
by turning it over to Stalin. Yet millions of Americans thought they were
being patriotic by electing and supporting him and revering his memory.
-
- Even alleged conservatives still praise him, and few
conservative politicians dare to suggest that his legacy is evil.
-
- As Chesterton observed, anarchy starts at the top. Disordered
rule, not street crime, is the real threat to society. But we have forgotten
the old republican idea that the government is the servant of the people;
today it is an imperious master, demanding our subservience and unconditional
loyalty, even when it takes away our freedoms.
-
- And we are called unpatriotic if we resist its tyranny!
-
- We should be warned by the memory of Henry VIII, the
king who ruined England. He claimed the absolute loyalty of his subjects,
even when he presumed to dictate changes in their religion ñ and
he got enough of loyalty for his purposes. The horrifying fact is that
he got it from nearly all of England's bishops.
-
- St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, who died for opposing
Henry, were not only martyrs; they were true patriots.
-
- They loved their country with something more than normal
affection; they loved it with supreme charity. ___
-
- Reprinted from the November 1, 2001, issue of The Wanderer.
-
- http://www.lewrockwell.com/sobran/sobran209.html
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