Giant Foam Finger
Paul Phillips responds to some guy giving him the “love it or leave it” take on patriotism:
THIS country, unlike most others, was founded by people who understood that government is merely a tool, not a god to whom we pledge unthinking allegiance, and it is a tool useful only for a very limited set of tasks. When your government is vastly overreaching its proper role, who is the patriot: the man who speaks his mind, or the man who says “love it or leave it, you pinko commie!”
This isn’t a sports team you’re rooting for, some guy. I don’t feel any obligation to wave a giant foam finger when my government is blowing it. That you do makes you much worse than useless.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s the people like Hunter Thompson who hold the government’s feet to the fire who are the greatest patriots our nation has ever known. Administration yes men — and this goes for every administration — are doing us all a huge disservice.
April 4th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
If we were all mamby pamby “go with the flow,” people, imagine how far behind we’d be. Imagine that if we were mindless patriots, the human rights movement wouldn’t have taken off, and heck, slavery might still be going strong. We could still be in Vietnam all these years later, or women might still only be seen and not heard. All the people who are mindlessly patriotic spewing crap that indicates “You who question authority are unpatriotic,” are really just sheep, and nothing more. Viva la revolucion’!