patriotic – Engaging Peace

Pikes Peak from the Garden of the Gods. Photo by Mark Gallagher, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

(Pikes Peak in Colorado was the inspiration for the song America the Beautiful.)

According to the Miriam Webster online dictionary, a patriot is a person who loves and strongly supports or fights for his or her country. That means I’m a patriot.

I love my country, particularly its courageous survivors:

*the rolling hills and mountains not yet sheared off by mining companies, still there to be climbed with joy,

*the gracious ancient forests not yet cut down for logging or building, still there yielding shade and replenishing our air,

*the enticing hills and valleys, not yet torn apart through fracking, still home to countless flora and fauna to elate our eyes and ears,

*the lakes and rivers not yet polluted by ruthless despoilers, still gifting us with the foundation of life.

I strongly support my country, particularly

*our basic Constitutional structure, with its balance of powers, and basic rights and assurances–which include freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion but not a right to carry automatic weapons and multiple rounds of ammunition into schools and other public places,

*today’s Constitution, which, unlike its earliest version, recognizes that people of color and women are people too, but says nothing, I would argue, about corporations being people with human rights,

*the millions of my compatriots who speak out against the destruction of our environment and the corruption of our Constitution by a tiny power elite that can elect and buy many (but not all) politicians.

I fight for my country. I do that by

*speaking out against the warmongers, war profiteers, and destroyers of social justice

*contributing to many of the groups that fight to rescue what is left of our natural environment

*writing this blog.

Please join me in this form of patriotism.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

One of the theorists to be considered in greater detail in later posts is George Lakoff.

We introduce several of his main ideas here because they are relevant to how readers are likely to respond to this blog; specifically, Lakoff has provided a brilliant analysis of moral reasoning in liberals and conservatives.

In his book, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, Lakoff argues that liberals and conservatives hold different values.

Specifically, liberals value:

Empathetic behavior and promoting fairness
Helping those who cannot help themselves
Protecting those who cannot protect themselves
Promoting fulfillment in life
Nurturing and strengthening oneself in order to help others.

By contrast, conservatives value:

A “strict father” morality (using punishment to establish respect for authority)
Self-discipline, responsibility, and self-reliance
The morality of reward and punishment
Protecting moral people from external evils
Upholding the established moral order.

Traditionally, liberals have been viewed as doves and conservatives as hawks; however, within both sectors there are pro-war and anti-war activists who differ primarily in their moral reasoning:

Pro-war conservatives often refer to the evilness and moral inferiority of the identified “enemy” and view protestors against war as unpatriotic.
Pro-war liberals are more likely to use the rhetoric of helping others.

In regard to this blog, it is the liberals who are more likely to be sympathetic to advocacy of peace activism. Would you agree? Why is this likely to be so?

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

What is a patriot?

Conservative and liberal world views