Penn & Teller: Patriotism

To avoid drawing a line that I cannot cross, let me stress from the outset that I am speaking as a patriot of American ideals, not the borders within which I find myself. Any seeming 'bordercentrism' is only by extension of the fact that I do happen to live in America. With that said....

I've been asked before to define my sense of patriotism, above are two videos by two of my favorite commentators - the intellectual magicians and comedy duo Penn & Teller, and the astute thinker known as The Southern Avenger. Both videos express elements of thought that I strongly resonate with, with only a couple of disagreements, so small that they don't even bare mentioning.

For me, it's simple, there is no philosophical obfuscation here, no collection of ambiguities to wade through. By the fortune of my birth, I am American; land of law, freedom and the right to succeed. These things which are granted me by the very same fortune of my birth. They are dear to me and shape the 'has been', as well as the 'is to be' of my life. Without such freedom, it is reasonable to say that I would not be writing this at all. I almost certainly would not be extolling the virtues of freedom in Pyongyang, North Korea for instance.

As articulated in the above videos, these rights are mine and inherently attached to who I am. These rights are limited only insofar as rational and acceptable laws should limit them. There is great beauty to be found in a sea of opinions freely expressed with no fear of reprisal from a totalitarian government, nefarious death squad, et al. Knowledge available to anyone, about anything, with the greatest of ease and only reasonable restrictions. These are the type and kind of freedoms that I love and would sorely miss should I no longer have them.

It is often pointed out by many of my associates that I am not what I do (an idea immortalized in Stanley Kubrick's Fight Club), or where I live is not of importance to who I am. I disagree slightly, by degree. The borders that surround me do not make me, but the ideals found within those borders, definitely do. The ideals championed by The United States of America are minority ideals, they are in no way popular or emulated worldwide. If I did not toil under the banner of these standards, how could I begin to say that I would be the same person I am today, without feeling like a liar or just a little naive? Freedom and oppression necessarily shape people differently - I think that this is a truism, almost embarrassing to mention.

All of these freedoms and rights form a distinct American culture, and it is known as "The American Way"; "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" baby. I argue that culture is to a man, what a foundation is to a house. The cultural freedom and rights that I am afforded, while not uniquely American, are so devastatingly unpopular that finding them elsewhere in order to compile a list, would I suspect, be a very short list indeed. No, I don't think I would be the same man writing this from a hotel room in Tehran, and I almost certainly would not be a patriot.

But, since I do live in a nation that upholds these basic truths to be self-evident, I have the right to be a patriot - and I am one.

GWC