Interesting debates

books:

	• For Love of Country? Martha C. Nussbaum Beacon Press, 2002 - 155 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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food for thought

For most people patriotism is a self-evident virtue that requries little defense or explanation. Here's a book why this should not be the case. Whether in challenging patriotic morality with the cosmopolitan alternative (Martha Nussbaum)or in showing what's good and necessary about patriotism (most of her critics), this book will doubtlessly stimulate your thinking and might even change your take on the subject. Strongly Recommended

Interesting debates

This book consists of a brief essay by Martha Nussbaum, 16 comments on it by various philosophers and scholars, and a final response by Dr. Nussbaum. Nussbaum's essay is a strong pitch for cosmopolitanism as opposed to devotion to one country. She criticizes "patriotism" for narrowness, intolerance, and proneness to lead to war. Several of the 16 following essays point out, with varying degrees of clarity, that she has rather failed to distinguish patriotism from chauvinism. Most of the essays defend patriotism, or at least local loyalties--to family, culture, and so on.
I would respectfully submit that some clearer thinking is needed. First, real patriotism--love of country--is not only different from chauvinism, it is a quite different feeling. Patriotism involves caring enough about one's institutionalized polity to vote, support candidates, speak, write, fight to defend the country if it is attacked, and generally keep it on an even keel. Patriotism is about recognizing that your nation-state has done a lot for you--protecting you, guaranteeing certain freedoms, subsidizing your education, and so on--and you care about that, so you want to give something back. Chauvinism--the sort of "patriotism" that takes the form of hating other people and other places--is quite different. It comes from fear (where else could hate come from?) and, in particular, deep insecurity. Chauvinists are rarely good citizens. In the US, they have been notoriously prone to oppose the Constitution, especially its freedoms and separation of powers (see the Bush administration, for example). They also are notoriously prone to cheat on obligations to country; they are often corrupt and they don't like serving in the military or otherwise giving back.
Also quite different are commitments to family and to culture. A family is not a polity; loyalty to family is partly instinctive, partly learned, and not the same thing as loyalty to a political entity. Culture is a totally different thing from nationhood. One of the main reasons I love the US is that it is tolerant and multicultural. (Again, chauvinists don't like this, which shows they are not very patriotic.) I am proud of my culture, such as it is, but my culture isn't the US. The US is an institution, not a culture. Popular Anglo-American culture is often called "American culture," but it isn't. America is thoroughly multicultural, and even within the Anglo-American tradition, regionalism is very strong. Southern Scots-Irish culture is very different from anything in New England or Wyoming.
Hating or opposing other people isn't loving one's country, any more than hating all other kids is loving your kids.
America's traditions of freedom, and its heritage (Abraham Lincoln, FDR, etc.), are mentioned by various essayists, but this is only somewhat relevant. Sure, I'm proud of all that, but I would love America's great accomplishments if I were Australian or Mongolian. Being loyal is a somewhat different thing, involving--among other things--putting up with the bad stuff too, and working to fix it. Cherry-picking "good traditions" isn't enough.
Finally, love of country could mean love of landscape (though none of these authors says so). I love the North Cascades--I love equally the part in the US and the part in Canada. Loyalty to one's nation is different.
So, what does one owe to who? My personal view might be very crudely summarized as follows: One owes one's family some real warm love and care--as individuals. One owes one's culture nothing at all, but if you appreciate your culture, go for it, without putting down others' cultures. One owes one's country some loyalty, including defense--as long as one is a citizen of the country and as long as the country is not unalterably set against you and yours. One owes the entire human race a lot of love, support, and concern. One owes the world--the nonhuman lives included--a bit less immediate love and concern, but they too are fellow travelers, and we depend on them, and we can't ignore them. Finally, one owes it to family AND culture AND nation AND planet to fight chauvinism and intolerance at every level and in every way. A patriot must hate that sort of "patriotism." One can be a patriotic American or Italian or Uzbekistani AND a cosmopolitan world citizen, just as one love one's family AND love the human race too (in a different way).
This book could provide a useful start in talking about who owes what to whom, but the grave scholars will have to clarify their thinking a lot more on exactly what emotions and exactly what units we are talking about.

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interesting book

This is a collection of essays that discusses and debates the ideas of patriotism and cosmopolitanism. The idea of being a "citizen of the world" is very fascinating and complex, it is of course naturally apart of any discourse regarding globalization. I think this may be why I enjoyed the book, I find most if not all books dealing with globalization very interesting

For Love of Country is a rare forum: a real conversation among some of our most prominent intellectuals about an issue of urgent public importance. At the center of this lively and utterly readable debate book is Martha Nussbaumi's passionate argument against patriotism. At a time when our connections and obligations to the rest of the world grow only stronger, we should reject patriotism as a parochial ideal, she says, and instead see ourselves first of all as "citizens of the world."

Fifteen writers and thinkers respond to Nussbaum's piece in short, hard-hitting, often brilliant essays, acknowledging the power of her argument, but often defending patriotisms and other local commitments with an eloquence equal to Nussbaum's. We hear from an astonishing range of writers from Robert Pinsky to Cornel West to Gertrude Himmelfarb to Sissela Bok.

This is contemporary American philosophy at its most relevant and readable. At a time when debates about crises in Bosnia or Somalia are dominated by politicians and military leaders, here are the voices of philosophers and poets, literary scholars and historians. A book of surprising insights and diversity, For Love of Country is especially written for a wide audience and is sure to spark debate.

NEW DEMOCRACY FORUM
A series of short paperback originals exploring creative solutions to our most urgent national concerns. The series editors (for Boston Review), Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers, aim to foster politically engaged, intellectually honest, and morally serious debate about fundamental issues?both on and off the agenda of conventional politics.

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