Patriotism means supporting your government during times of war. I disagree with this statement. Patriotism, the love to ones country does not imply one has to support their government. To love a country, one must do things that would be beneficial to the country. A government is created to represent the citizens, representatives of the country. If a government is corrupted and would not listen to the voices of the citizens, the government is not doing their job. The government is no longer the representatives of the country. Thus, citizens do not have to support their government and still be a patriot. Citizens following the government can be patriots, but not all patriots are followers of the government.
If the government, a representative of all citizens starts a war that is not beneficial to the country, why support it?
If the government, a representative of all citizens starts a war that is not beneficial to the country, why support it?
3 comments:
i totally agree with you on this. a government is only one part of the country. governments should represent the people but if the government is doing something that does not help or represent the people correctly then they are no doing their job. the government is a formation of certain citizens, and if the citizens or the government fail to represent each other correctly then there is no "patriotism" in the country
-Marvin Eng
Melissa, your last line, “Citizens following the government can be patriots, but not all patriots are followers of the government” really says a lot about your stance on this issue because the citizens are the body of the country and they control how loyal they are to the government. The government may have a higher authority, but kind of like what Marvin said, the government is not the WHOLE country. Therefore, patriotism is not about supporting the government’s choices in all times because citizens who don’t always agree can still have love for their country, maybe in aspects other than their government.
I agree with this. A patriot is a person who thinks about what a government has done and supports or doesn't support the action based on how it benefits the country and not their own views and principals, liberal, conservative etc. (although this seems to be the thought of many). Since we cannot truly know what will help the country, though, it is possible for patriots to have two opposing views but still be legitimate patriots, depending on what they think an outcome will be.
Eric Lombardo
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