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What was once an uplifting concept has now become a dirty word. We're encouraged to be proud of our families and local neighborhoods, but for some reason it's now no longer politically correct to be proud of our country and national heritage. Patriotism, which was once regarded as a virtue, is now being portrayed as a vice. In February 2008, a report published by the University of London's Institute of Education, suggested that patriotism should not be encouraged in schools because it was 'morally ambiguous' and might encourage teachers to stress the great moments of British history and play down or exclude the shameful events. 'Are countries really appropriate objects of love?' the report asks, before giving the exceedingly dubious moral answer: 'Loving things can be bad for us, for example when the things we love are morally corrupt.' As a result of this cock-eyed thinking three quarters of the teachers in Britain now feel obliged to tell students about the dangers of patriotism. But isn't it better to love rather than to hate? No person or nation is perfect. I revere my late mother and father, but neither parent was faultless. Reality comes from seeing individuals and institutions warts and all.
It's impossible to teach history without some concept of patriotism, for British values of freedom, liberty, duty and social responsibility are rooted in the past. The Institute in its report states rather grandiosely: 'To love what is corrupt is itself corrupting'. But isn't the reverse equally true, and far more constructive? Shouldn't we be teaching our children to love what is good, since that is ennobling? Patriotism doesn't divide people of different races, it draws them together through a shared sense of belonging and commitment. In recent years Britain has experienced an influx of immigrants, many from Britain's former colonies. Some have been seeking asylum from religious or political persecution; others have been fiscal immigrants seeking employment. What is the best way of helping the children of these immigrants to be assimilated and made to feel at home in their adopted country?
There seems little doubt that one of the finest ways is through the teaching of history. This, according to a spokesman for the think tank Civilitas is: 'because, in determining the common sense of national identity shared by the inhabitants of a country, their understanding of its history plays as powerful a constitutive role as memory does in determining an individual's sense of personal identity.' This teaching, he wrote, would almost certainly evoke 'admiration of, and affection for, their country, as well as pride in being among its citizens.' Immigrant children will feel rootless, unless they're made to feel a part of the country in which they live. This was the conclusion that John Locke reached in his paper 'Some thoughts concerning education', which was published in 1693 when Britain was emerging from a protracted period of social unrest and political turbulence. Through the study of history children should be encouraged to love their country, he wrote, for it was 'everyman's indispensable duty to do all the service he can to his country.' They should be trained to identify with the national past, identify with the nation in its present, and be prepared to serve the national well-being in the future. People can be born abroad, and yet become English by adoption and choice, just as Robert the Bruce became the great Scottish hero even though he was born in Essex of Norman stock.
If it's reasonable to feel nostalgia when we're abroad, why isn't equally reasonable to feel pride and joy when we're living in our native land, or our adopted country? In Webster's 1828 dictionary 'patriotism' is defined as: 'Love of one's country; the passion which aims to serve one's country, either in defending it from invasion, or protecting its rights and maintaining its laws and institutions in vigour and purity.' How can anyone decry patriotism if they accept that definition? Webster was writing at a time when people thought that national identity was acquired through the sharing of common characteristics, like race, religion, rituals, traditions and language. Now it's known to be something more, a wider conception first advanced by the French theorist Ernest Renan, who wrote an influential essay What is Nationhood? in 1882, at the height of the Alsace-Lorraine dispute. He saw patriotism as a verb rather than a noun, a quality defined by what we do, rather than by what we are. A nation is the desire of a people to live together, 'having done great things together and wishing to do more.' A man who truly loves his wife does his utmost to care for her and promote her welfare, and so it is for men and woman who love their country.
Today, patriotism has got mixed up with racism, xenophobia, fascism, jingoism and the BNP. Conspiracy theorists may suspect a hidden political agenda. It's feared, understandably, that Britons who are fervent patriots will spill the European apple cart. So long as they live they'll never accept the loss of freedom, sovereignty and national identity that would result from being merged into the framework of an undemocratic European super power. Perhaps in future we should adopt a sporting approach to patriotism and nationhood. A football team, even if it's badly managed and heavily in debt, can still keep going and win matches providing the players work together as a team. It doesn't matter if they're immigrants from Argentina, Portugal, Italy and Estonia, providing they're drawn together by their mutual desire to win and move up into the Premier Division. In this joint enterprise there's no place for free-loaders or prima donnas. Every player has got to make a wholehearted contribution to the team effort and not merely criticise from the sidelines. When the government is corrupt or inefficient there must be a resurgence of patriotism, which is more greatly needed then than when the nation is well managed and prospering. In Mark Twain's words: 'Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.'
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