Patriotism

Patriot: You libertarians should be ashamed of yourselves! Our troops are dying for you overseas, and all you do is sit around and criticize what they’re doing! Such ingratitude!

Brian: They are indeed dying overseas, but since I didn’t send them there, nor do I want them to be there, how can you say that they are dying for me?

Patriot: They are dying while in the course of serving their country. This country is your country; hence they are dying for you.

Brian: What if I don’t want to be a member of this group, this ‘country’ as you put it?

Patriot: Love it or leave it, partner! If you don’t like being a part of this country, then go live somewhere else!

Brian: Why should I have to leave my home in order to stop being a member of this group? I don’t have to change my place of residence if I want to cease being a member of a debating club that I have joined.

Patriot: Completely different! Countries are made up of territory; if you live on that territory, then you are a resident, or ‘member’, of the country.

Brian: Ah, so ‘the country’ has certain ownership rights in all of the real property in its ‘territory’, such that I must be a member of ‘the country’ if I am to live on any of that property?

Patriot: If you want to put it like that, then sure, I guess that’s right.

Brian: How did ‘the country’ originally claim these territorial ownership rights?

Patriot: You’re overcomplicating things. Every piece of territory is subject to a national government. Pieces of territory that share the same national government are thereby part of the same country.

Brian: I will rephrase the question then: how does a piece of territory come to be subject to a particular national government?

Patriot: Sometimes it’s through conquest, sometimes it’s through the voluntary federation of formerly independent countries. But most of that happened long ago, and is solely of antiquarian interest today. What matters is that today, all of the world’s territory is divided into countries, and that’s a fact you’ll just have to live with!

Brian: The fact that the whole world is apportioned into the respective turfs of various coercive governments is indeed something that I will have to live with for the moment. But why should the rulers of these arbitrary subdivisions be entitled to my unwavering loyalty?

Patriot: You don’t owe loyalty to the rulers; you owe it to your fellow countrymen!

Brian: I don’t see why sharing the same territorial overlords should necessarily create a special bond between these people and I. I bet I have more in common with lots of people from other countries than I do with most people in my own country.

Patriot: It doesn’t matter what ‘you’ think or what ‘you’ have in common with people. It’s about community, identity, a sense of belonging.

Brian: I prefer to choose my communities and to forge my own identity, not have them be determined based on the feuding and machinations of governments of the past. I feel a stronger ‘sense of belonging’ in a community that I choose to join myself, over one imposed on me based on arbitrary factors.  

Patriot: Fine, but like it or not, national communities are necessary in order to enable collective self-defense against invaders and tyrants who would seek to rob, murder, or enslave us.

Brian: National communities come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they?

Patriot: Sure, what’s your point?

Brian: Surely not all national communities are the optimum size for collective self-defense purposes then?

Patriot: No, probably not. How could they all be, since they vary so much in size?

Brian: Exactly. Now, do you think that smaller territories within a country should be allowed, under any circumstances, to secede from that country or to join another country?

Patriot: Separatism?! Certainly not! No one should be allowed to treasonously undermine the territorial integrity of our nation!

Brian: How about that of other nations?

Patriot: No, the result would be international chaos.

Brian: Ok. Do you think that whole countries should be allowed to join together to form a larger country?

Patriot: Sure, that’s how a lot of today’s great nations were formed.

Brian: Alright. Do you think that it is possible for a country to be too big?

Patriot: Of course. As an extreme example, a one world government would have the potential to perpetrate great tyranny.

Brian: But according to your earlier answers, countries should only be allowed to grow bigger, never to become smaller. Don’t you think that kind of one-way inflexibility might have a tendency to create larger than optimum countries?

Patriot: You’re right, that might be a possibility… But it can’t be helped! If we allowed separatism then eventually we would have city blocks trying to ‘separate’ to establish themselves as their own ‘sovereign nations’. It would be madness!

Brian: Even individuals might try to do so…

Patriot: Exactly! Ludicrous! No, we must stick with the system that we have and remain loyal to our countries. Otherwise, the world would go to hell in a hurry!

Brian: What if someone didn’t believe that the system of rigid nation states is necessary to prevent the world from going to hell, and believed that the world would do just fine, if not better, without that system? Would you forgive that person for not loyally supporting every cause of ‘his country’?

Patriot: I guess so. Such a lunatic would have much more serious problems than my condemnation, so I guess I would let them off the hook.

Brian: Thank you for your understanding of my position.

Patriot: (sigh) Crazy libertarians…