| By Gaither Stewart Online Journal Contributing Writer | |
“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” Oscar Wilde
The menace posed to society by distorted paranoid patriotism manifests itself in mysterious ways.
One of the most insidious characteristics of the super-patriot is the support he lends to the sect of Power. In our times, he melds intimately with Power, and is its vanguard. He joins in with its secret societies circulating invisibly in the community, and secretly influencing ordinary people who don’t suspect that the sects of Power and its enlisted agents are forever observing them and stalking them and evaluating them in order to determine if they measure up to the requirements of acceptable patriotism. But for Power the super-patriot is no more than a pawn.
Ordinary things, on ordinary days. Your exultant “patriotic” neighbor hangs out bigger and bigger Stars and Stripes. Your 4-year old son practices the Pledge of Allegiance for his kindergarten debut. On your way to work, every second car sports a “good ole USA” bumper sticker. Oh well, you think at first, just a few eccentrics. Then you meet the hecklers and the ugly faces surrounding the peace marchers and their shouts of “traitors” and “terrorists” and “al Qaeda lovers” and their patriotic “support our troops in Iraq.” And you see they are everywhere.
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