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Forget What You Think You Know About Patriotism
Patriotic Extracts
Before the beginning of Herman Melville’s epic novel, Moby Dick, he includes what he calls “Extracts” as quotes from other sources about the “whale” supplied “by a sub-sub-librarian.” The “Sub-Sub appears to have gone through the long Vaticans and street-stalls of the earth, picking up whatever random allusions to whales he could anyways find in any book whatsoever, sacred or profane.” And so, we attempt to extract from history the word of the month.
PATRIOTISM
Patriotism! A Farce. As it is Acted by his Majesty's Servants.
"The following farce
Will shew the men as in a glass;
Of all their motions the true spring,
Not love of country or of King,
But envy, av'rice, or ambition,
A fierce and factious disposition;
Rage from past disappointments flowing,
And hope of rivals overthrowing?
These are the principles that sway
The Whigs and patriots of our day,
Dictate their speeches in each house,
And Wilkes's Scurrilous abuse;
And if they could by force or stealth,
Wou'd turn us to a commonwealth;
Wou'd do as Cromwel did before,
Behead their King at his own door."
By John Wright · 1892
"The biographer of the eminent publisher says that when Washington visited Worcester in 1789 he said to a nephew of Mr. Thomas: "’Young man, your uncle has set you a bright example of patriotism; and never forget that, next to our God, we owe our highest duty to our country.’"
By Frederick W. Emerson · 1892
“Throughout our native land to-day,
With voices young and strong,
The children sing with joyful hearts,
Our patriotic song.
Under the trees, or God's blue sky,
In open air so free,
A mighty chorus swells the hymn :
The children rally round our flag,
So famous now in story,
And raise their hands and voices high,
With three cheers for "Old Glory!"
Speech of Joseph McCarthy, Wheeling, West Virginia, Feb. 9, 1950
"As you know, very recently the Secretary of State proclaimed his loyalty to a man guilty of what has always been considered as the most abominable of all crimes—being a traitor to the people who gave him a position of great trust—high treason. . . . He has lighted the spark which is resulting in a moral uprising and will end only when the whole sorry mess of twisted, warped thinkers are swept from the national scene so that we may have a new birth of honesty and decency in government. "
“You Are the Un-Americans, and You Ought to be Ashamed of Yourselves”: Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956
Mr. Robeson: "I say that he is as patriotic an American as there can be, and you gentlemen belong with the Alien and Sedition Acts, and you are the nonpatriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves."
1979
Kermit: "This is the patriotic part."
"Should we stand up?"
Kermit: “No”
Fozzie the Bear sings “America the Beautiful”
Fozzie: "Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear."