false patriotism and the oppression of real minds

I view the sense of patriotism that promotes people to join the military or police forces just to fight crime or hurt people from some sense of being better than someone or having power a disgrace to the national scene of how things should be. in my view people should know themselves and their weaknesses enough not to allow themselves to think violently about others. Lets take the mean cop vs the stoner. The mean cop approaches the stoner and starts to entrap him psychologicly or starts to act with cruelty. This happens because A: the law allows it (a psychological tool for an agressor. B: the cop has no self control over his own way of thinking because he might either like being cruel due to some emotional run in from his past or has been trained in messing with peoples psychology. So this is why i dont trust our system to discern someone, or judge someone with fairness and accuracy. And they dont deserve to, because our battle is not with each other, but with ourselves. The cop, the judge, the lawyer, the politicians the armies, the citizens all need to focus on finding thoughts properly as not to disturb each others connections with our realities, then they wont collide so negatively and we can find ways of lifting each other out of being trapped by wealth, poverty, and confusion. Those three things trap us in this paradigm. if we had an intelligent system, say where we all farmed, created textiles, and found ways to use energy properly and self regulated by teaching eachother wisdom, our knowledge wouldn't cause us frustration, it would raise us out of this entrapped society by the people deliberately holding us here through their own selfish manipulations.

where we all farmed, created textiles, and found ways to use energy properly and self regulated by teaching eachother wisdom, our knowledge wouldn't cause us frustration

reply to post by truthermantwo


There are a lot of out there that do try to live by this. But I also consider myself to be a patriot as well.

I think that you may be misconstruing Patriotism with Nationalism. I find that to be pretty commonplace these days.

I agree with you but also Tdawg too,the false patriotism you're talking about does sound like nationalism which is a dangerous phenomenon.

I think that patriotism is equated with nationalism these days,particularly here in the UK and Europe though that's understandable considering 20th century history !!!

I would consider myself patriotic,to a point.I'm proud of my culture,our history,what this country is meant to stand for (or what it I was taught it stood for growing up,I'm afraid I find that it doesn't seem to stand for the same things anymore ),the people,the landscapes,the positive things we've given to the world although I'd be the first to admit we've done a lot of bad aswell.

I think on balance we've given more good than bad to the world,maybe people in India and Africa may see it differently.

In recent times I more ambivalent about what we've done as a country.The continueing farce in Afghanistan makes little sense and Iraq was bulls**t from the start but I,like the majority in the UK,support our troops even though I think they shouldn't have gone to Iraq or be in Afghanistan still.

That's how I describe my patriotism but despite my pride in my culture and support of our troops I don't for one second believe that we're any better or different from any other human being from anywhere else in the world.Nor do I automatically believe what this country does is right.

I know what I believe to be right and wrong and if our government pursues a policy that I believe is wrong then I'll be the first to say so.The Iraq was being a prime example.

And I hate nationalism,the likes of the BNP and their ideals are pretty loathesome to my mind.

As for the police,they're good and bad pretty much like the rest of the population.Some become cops with ideals of public service,some join cos they get off on the power (I've had plenty of run ins with that kind) and a lot leave the forces and join the police as it's right up their street.

When I was 20 or 21 and one of those stoners you talked about there was this mad Irish,ex-paratrooper turned copper that really had it in for me.It became a bit of an obsession with him he'd pull me over every time he saw me,his attitude was very aggressive towards anyone who was with me but especially towards me.He'd search me and frantically rake through my car looking for some imagined stash of drugs which he never found.One time he was so intent on finding some smoke (there was perhaps enough for a few joints that had dropped on the floor but hdm didn't find it.haha) that he never even noticed my tax disc was out of date I ended up making a complaint after he pulled me over 4 times in one night but it didn't make any difference.

The thing is that as a general rule police,solicitors,procurator fiscals (judges in Scotland),politicians,health workers,social workers and all the other elements of modern society are all too human yet their judgement of us and our lives can have a real detrimental effect on us.

It'd be wonderful if we could live in a society where we didn't need these people but unforetunately human nature still seems to be such that we do.

I do wish that they weren't so pervasive though as they've become.20 or 30 years ago local government and the establishment didn't have their claws into our lives the way they do now.

It's the result of what's fast becoming the nanny state,where they even tell us how many units of alcohol we should drink a week or what we should eat.

As I said earlier on,what this country was meant to stand for when I was growing up.i.e,personal freedom,the rights of the individual and personal responsibility has warped in to the burgeoning nanny state,socialism,health & safety,political correctness.

Ok that may not sound that bad but it seems that they've replaced individual responsibility with social conscience and are using the organs of the state to enforce it.

Sounds like Big Brother's Little Brother

Rant over !!!!!