Patriotism is the 'love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it.' So what drives a man to willingly sacrifice himself for a nation? Is it ‘Love’, or sheer stupidity?
A country is just a piece of land with a name tag. It is not a living, breathing entity that you are emotionally attached to. It is not something you can't do without. Why this incessant patronization then? Why do we decorate it so lavishly, and place on it, a value higher than life itself? It is, after all just a part of our blue planet, just one region among many others.
People take immense pride in one's country. Take India - one boasts of the culture, the exuberance, the diversity, the colours and what not. But it is just by chance that you have been born here. You have not played any part in adding to the above features. Then why take pride? You are not proud of the random tree in your neighbourhood; you do not revel in the glory of the free bird on top of your building, then why do you 'love' your country so much?
A country is just a piece of land with a name tag. It is not a living, breathing entity that you are emotionally attached to. It is not something you can't do without. Why this incessant patronization then? Why do we decorate it so lavishly, and place on it, a value higher than life itself? It is, after all just a part of our blue planet, just one region among many others.
People take immense pride in one's country. Take India - one boasts of the culture, the exuberance, the diversity, the colours and what not. But it is just by chance that you have been born here. You have not played any part in adding to the above features. Then why take pride? You are not proud of the random tree in your neighbourhood; you do not revel in the glory of the free bird on top of your building, then why do you 'love' your country so much?
Patriotism is just a concept that we must abide by. It is a standard. You should love your country by default. You should stand up with needless gratification during your national anthem. You should pin your flag on your mighty chest on Independence Day. It is what the society has stamped upon us, and like cattle we should follow suit. Like plenty of such concepts, we take patriotism as a given, never questioning its integrity. That is how gullible we are.
A country, again, is just a piece of land. It was present before humans and will be there even after our end. Be it America, India, or Australia, it is just all geography. It is us humans that segregate this geography and misuse its resources. We dwell upon this division so much that we tend to wipe each other out.
If it were not for our beloved nations and our inherent vainglory, there would be no wars, no innocent citizen casualties and no superfluous power mongers. Look clearly and you will see that nations are just a rudimentary form of divide and rule. Divide the world and rule the people.
Sacrificing yourself for a country is the supreme achievement, worthy of an array of medals and honours. So basically you take pride in dying for a nation that is robbing you of your income in the form of taxes and bribes, a nation that is barring most of your rights under the guise of morality and a nation that is demeaning your livelihood by recklessly inflating prices; all this while the leaders laugh their way to foreign banks.
Yet, one must not undermine the sacrifice of the chivalrous soldier. He dies foolishly for a nation, but valiantly for our lives. It is life that is worth dying for, not the nation. Life is what must garner value, for it is the open human mind that is the most astounding thing on this planet, not an inconsequential strip of soil...
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