Patriotism

Patriotism is something which most of the democratic countries regard with high esteem. Patriotism or national pride is the ideology of love and devotion to one’s homeland, and a sense of alliance with other citizens who share the same values. It is a strong bond holding a nation intact. A patriotic person is bound by duty to support his or her country, irrespective of his beliefs, ideologies or leanings. Without regard for peripheral details, patriotism defines a habit of identifying oneself with a single nation and placing it beyond good and evil while recognising no other obligation than that of advancing its interest. Fighting anything that puts one’s nation in the wrong track ought to become a patriot’s passion. This means that fraudulent conducts such as corruption, or any other disruptive forces which pose a present or prospective threat or danger to the progress of the nation ought to be addressed without any fear by patriotic citizens.

So, patriotism boils down to purposeful examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings about what one can do for his country; not what the country can do for them; how one can advance the interests of a nation; not how one is easily tempted to abuse a leadership position for personal gain.

Patriotism is above politics, but true patriotism is very important to politics. It is not patriotism that disfigures politics; rather, what disfigures politics is the intentional effort by some politicians who don’t understand what patriotism really means, to exploit the ignorance of voters for their selfish ambitions.

Patriotism is an ideology and when used in moderation is healthy but, taken to extremes, it can be harmful. It is a painful sight to see the spirit of patriotism frequently getting impaired or tainted in many ways in our country with the negative influence or erratic interpretation of ethnic, cultural, historical, religious or a few other aspects. This aspect needs no over emphasis in the present times.