{"id":17785,"date":"2010-07-06T00:23:36","date_gmt":"2010-07-06T06:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=17785"},"modified":"2010-07-06T00:23:36","modified_gmt":"2010-07-06T06:23:36","slug":"my-country-right-or-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/06\/my-country-right-or-wrong.html","title":{"rendered":"My country, right or wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

That’s what some people say, at least. They can see no wrong done by their country; anything their country does in its own interest is right because it is, after all, their country<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The phrase (if not the tribal sentiment) came from Stephen Decatur, who said, “Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong.”<\/p>\n

To which John Quincy Adams demurred<\/a>, “I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum<\/em>. My toast would be, may our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.” And, later, GK Chesterton commented<\/a>, “‘My Country, right or wrong’ is a thing no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.'”<\/p>\n

It is natural, even healthy within limits, to root for the home team — the family, the club, the tribe, the state, the nation.\u00a0 Group identity has its value.\u00a0 But it has its blindnesses, as well, and it’s a very slippery slope from patriotism to jingoism, from “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, to thee I sing” to “My country, right or wrong.” Or, worse (and exemplified by the blathering of the Becks and the Hannities and the Limbaughs), “My country, right by definition.”<\/p>\n

Which is a very round-about way to push folks to this post of DOF’s, “A Day in Patriotic Space<\/a>“.\u00a0 I do a lot of linky-love Unblogged Bits posts I could have mentioned it in, but I wanted to be sure that George’s post got sufficient billing, so that it didn’t get lost in the chatter.<\/p>\n

It’s good stuff. Worth (as usual with George) reading. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s what some people say, at least. They can see no wrong done by their country; anything their country does in its own interest is right because it is, after all, their country. The phrase (if not the tribal sentiment) came from Stephen Decatur, who said, “Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may … Continue reading “My country, right or wrong?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48756,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/09\/my-country-right-or-wrong-is-a-thing-no-patriot-would-think-of-saying-except-in-a-desperate-case-it-is-like-saying-my-mother-drunk-or-sober.html","url_meta":{"origin":17785,"position":0},"title":"On blind patriotism","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Dec-14 3:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"My Country, right or wrong\" is a thing no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, \"My mother, drunk or sober.\" -- G K Chesterton (1874-1936) [http:\/\/wist.info\/chesterton-gilbert-keith\/628\/] A quotation that came to mind multiple times today. Chesterton, Gilbert Keith - The Defendant, ch.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1161,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/07\/its_a_small_wor-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":17785,"position":1},"title":"It’s a small world, after all","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Oct-01 6:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's something very odd about hearing that you're country is pursuing war whilst vacationing at Disney World. Not wrong, not \"Oh, my God, can't everyone just get along?\" Just ......","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8129,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/05\/12\/fishy.html","url_meta":{"origin":17785,"position":2},"title":"Fishy","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-May-05 7:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure I agree with Scott's assessment that \"This is all that's wrong with our country,\" but it's a fine example of ... what, near-blasphemous conflation between Bush and...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/bushfish.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9088,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/21\/sauce_for_the_g.html","url_meta":{"origin":17785,"position":3},"title":"Sauce for the goose","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Feb-06 8:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"How can the West stand (in the \"Mohammed Cartoons\" controversy) for freedom of expression, no madder how rude or offensive or inflammatory, when folks are still being imprisoned for rude,...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26113,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/06\/look-voter-fraud.html","url_meta":{"origin":17785,"position":4},"title":"Look! Voter fraud!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Feb-12 3:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Of course, it's a GOP state official doing it. And convicted of it.\"Besides the obvious embarrassment of the state official who is in charge of elections being indicted on charges of voter registration fraud, it's just perfect that this happened in Indiana, because Indiana paved the way for the voter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9483,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/06\/28\/let_it_burn.html","url_meta":{"origin":17785,"position":5},"title":"Let it burn","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Jun-06 6:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"I consider myself a pretty patriotic fellow.\u00a0 I love my country, I admire the principles under which it was founded and operates.\u00a0 I do think we have something very...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}