July 4th, 2025

July 4th, 2025

Patriotism is like religion - Opium des Volkes. People shroud themselves in it and tend to wield it most ardently against, not for ideas or change.

Wrapped in a flag and thumping their chest over the love of their country, their pride over its accomplishments, devotion to its "cause", many inherited their patriotism with the culture they happened to have been born into. How can conviction based on happenstance be meaningful?

Many immigrants may feel patriotic towards their adopted country, too -- after all, they actually chose it, they gave up something (some gave up everything) to become part of it. The irony that they will face the strongest rejection from "true patriots" is loud and bitter.

Immigrants who become US citizens, unlike natural born citizens (for however long that concept still holds), actually swear an oath to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic" -- an oath that has been made a mockery ten times over by the current president and many of his sycophantic willing executioners.

The Declaration of Independence always had to me the same noble pathos as that oath, making the concept of patriotism almost approachable. But not this year. In the past, I've observed the "Raah-raah U-S-A--U-S-A" celebrations with little more than an eyeroll, but as so many others have observed, this year the holiday feels very different.

I don't know if there's still the possibility of turning this country around, to take society back to at least consider the promises made in that document. But I do know what's needed to do that: the willingness of people to stand up -- no, not "for their country", but for what is right and just. All you need for that is basic moral decency.

Patriotism? Je n'ais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.

July 4th, 2025