Jon Meacham on the DNC and the RNC: Patriotism vs Propaganda | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

Presidential historian and biographer Jon Meacham, who was a speaker at Biden's DNC, contrasts and compares that event to the four days of Trump's very different RNC. Aired on 08/28/2020.

I Am an Englishman
The English people fought long and hard for the rights and freedoms that we enjoy today. They were not simply handed over to us on a plate and we should never ever take them for granted because there are those who would see them taken from us. Our people paid a heavy price, more often than not paid in blood, for the principle that our voices would be heard and that our leaders would represent us and not themselves

Patriotism by Decree in Slovakia
TIME: As nationalistic laws go, the one just passed in Slovakia seems rather tame on the surface. Earlier this month, the Slovak parliament approved a "patriotic act" mandating that every school play the Slovak national anthem on Mondays and that each classroom display a set of state symbols: the flag, the coat of arms, the lyrics to the anthem and the constitution's preamble. However innocuous this all may appear to be, though, Slovaks are outraged that the government is forcing them, by law, to be more patriotic.

The legislation was sponsored by the Slovak National Party, an ultra-nationalist outfit whose controversial leader, Jan Slota, is known for his xenophobic slurs, which are often aimed at the country's ethnic Hungarians. But Slota maintains that he doesn't just want to instill more patriotism among the Hungarian minority —he wants Slovaks to have more pride in their country, too. (Never mind the fact that his own knowledge of the anthem proved spotty in an interview last week when he confused some of the words and got the author wrong.) "The children's relationship to their nation, to their homeland is not on a decent level," Slota tells TIME. "In America, the schoolchildren parade into a schoolyard, the flag is drawn, the anthem is sung and everyone holds hand over heart." >>> Katerina Zachovalova, Bratislava | Thursday, March 18, 2010

If Children Are Taught That Patriotism Is Wrong, Britain’s Very Identity Is At Stake
MAIL ONLINE: One of the most startling aspects of our society at present is the way things that were once considered to be virtues have now become the object of intense disapproval, and vice versa.

A recent survey of teachers by London University's Institute of Education found that some three-quarters of them believed it was their duty to warn their pupils about the dangers of patriotism.

Once upon a time, loving your country enough that you were prepared to die for it was held to be the highest virtue.

Indeed, without patriotism there would be no one serving in the Armed Forces.

For the past 1,000 years, it has given the people of these islands the strength and courage to repel invaders and defeat the enemies of liberty.

Is it not extraordinary that such affection for your country should now be considered so objectionable that children should be told it is positively dangerous?

One teacher said that praising patriotism excluded non-British pupils.

'Patriotism about being British divides groups along racial lines, when we aim to bring pupils to an understanding of what makes us the same.'

But on the contrary, patriotism is what binds us together through a shared sense of belonging and a desire to defend what we all have in common. >>> Melanie Phillips | Monday, September 14, 2009

Death of Patriotism: How National Pride Is 'Under Threat by a Global Super-Elite'
MAIL Online: Patriotism is back in fashion. With the Union flag flying high over Beijing after the golden success of our Olympic athletes, the British public has been given a rare opportunity to indulge in unbridled expressions of national pride.

Yet, in our ever more globalised world, instinctive patriotism is being diluted. The concept of nationhood has been undermined by mass immigration and the imposition of the dogma of multi-culturalism.

Our economy is increasingly tied up with the global financial system, dominated by multinational giants which see borders as irrelevant. Supra-national bodies, such as the UN and the EU, have a mounting influence over our political governance.

The idea of national interest is sliding towards the dustbin of history.

Only last month, in a rhetorical and extravagant speech to the Israeli parliament, Gordon Brown called on the nations of the world to ensure that our era becomes ‘the century of the global community’.

In one overblown passage, he pledged to ‘make a reality of the vision of a global society in which we create global civic institutions that turn words of friendship into bonds of human solidarity’.

Not to be outdone, David Cameron has joined this enthusiasm for earnest globalism. Death of Patriotism: How National Pride Is 'Under Threat by a Global Super-Elite' >>> By Leo McKinstry | August 23, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

All Government Buildings to Fly Union Flag Every Day as a Sign of Patriotism and Britishness

Union Jack courtesy of Google Images

THE TELEGRAPH: Gordon Brown's order that all government buildings should fly the Union flag every day of the year shows how fast things are changing. When the Countryside Alliance was organising its last and biggest march in London in 2003, I suggested to it privately that every marcher should carry a Union flag. They had thought of this, they said, but had rejected it because nowadays the flag was associated with Right-wing extremism.

And so it came about that the largest and most patriotic of modern British protest movements effectively banned the national flag from its events. Yet today a Labour government wishes to wave that flag every day, from every pole. What is going on?

The answer is that "Britishness" - the very word was not much used until recently - now matters again. Flying the flag is only the first step to victory (more) By Charles Moore

Mark Alexander