Introduction
Virtue is a trait that promotes the moral and common good. However, patriotism is a virtue to the point that is not the extreme and the people of the country never gain at the cost of resources, which are useful to other countries. In addition to that patriotism should not avoid or prevent the flow of talent from other countries to the mother country. In that aspect American society follows Nussbaum’s broader cosmopolitan view to inviting the talent from all parts of the world. According to George Bernard Shaw, Patriotism is a feeling of one own country’s superiority because he/she was born in it. As one’s birth cannot decide one’s superiority, the wars may result in extreme patriotic behaviors according to Guy de Maupassant. Hence, in extreme conditions patriotism cannot be considered as a virtue when it leads to wars between countries, which are destructive and harmful for the people of participating countries. Hence, the broader cosmopolitan view of Nussbaum can be viewed superior to that of David Miller’s view as it inherently contains the common good and moral values for mankind. Patriotism should be compassionate and it may take an extreme turn when the people of a particular country or origin are oppressed by people of another country or origin. In that condition, the oppression faced by the people may take shape of extreme patriotism and may result in the common good of the oppressed. However, after attaining freedom, the previously oppressed people should not dominate other people in the name of patriotism as it does no common good and in that context, the patriotism may lose its virtue.
Compassionate Patriotism
In some cases, patriotism arises from fear, grief, and astonishment and from the feeling that everybody has to defend the country. The September 11, 2001 incident that happened in the US was the incident that is capable of giving rise to that type of patriotism. Even in the wake of American’s sympathy to women and children in Afghanistan, the orientation of intentions and imaginations of American society in the aftermath of 9/11 just resulted in a patriotic fervor that leads to the war on terror. Hence, in the above context, patriotism is the feeling that arises from the concerns of the safety of the people of a nation. However, in that concern, the fate of thousands and lacs of peoples who are suffering from national calamities and civil wars all over the world are neglected as they do not have enough economic clout in the international arena and they are not fierce enough to fight against the problems they face. As a result in the above context, patriotism is the quality that defends a country but not a virtue that does the common good. The above type of patriotism cannot result in compassionate patriotism as the safety concerns of the people of the US and their children resulted in the defeat of other people and safety concerns of their children for at least one generation. Hence, it can be termed that the patriotic fervor that results in a win of pride for one country and loss of pride and livelihood for another country is not compassionate patriotism. Compassionate patriotism arises from the aspect that enables the sharing of values and prosperity with the people of another country. One can observe that there is no conflict with the countries with which we share our prosperity, values and thoughts. The conflict arises by loss of compassion in patriotic feelings and the compassionate patriotism can lead to prevention of conflicts between different countries. Though one can term the safety concerns are emotional as well as the compassion, the compassion results in positive results and safety concerns arise from the lack of compassion.
Martha Nussbaum (2001) quotes Aristotle in her article about compassion that requires three things. The first thing is the rise of compassionate feeling from own self interest and the reality of another person’s good or ill. The other kind of compassion is the compassion that arises from emotion and do not consider the vulnerabilities of self and other people. The patriotism seizes to be a virtue when the expansion of moral concern in that stops at the national boundary. Though our philosophies regarding religions and studies say that all human beings are of equal worth, the human emotions involved in patriotism do not believe it and that removes virtue from the patriotism. Nussbaum quotes Aristotle for second time about the citizens of Plato’s ideal city who are asked to care for all citizens equally and actually care for none. As care is a result of intense attachments in small groups the universal care sometimes seizes to occur if it does not have an organizational buildup to take care.
Comparison between Miller’s and Nussbaum’s Views
Miller in his debate ‘We should promote Patriotism’ emphasizes one’s allegiance to national boundaries without justification of their stand. He quotes the moral and political philosophies that are flawed and are only corrected when found that they are inconsistent. Hence, he supports the allegiance and extreme patriotism unless it is proved that the patriotic feelings are not justified and are not for common good. He undermines the role of rationality to support his argument and talks about the allegiances of people towards nationality that build the political philosophy and organization. Hence, he supports the patriotism to its extreme point in order to build organization necessary for the people living under certain boundaries. David Miller talks about the different points of distributive justice that emerge from national and universal point of view are the reason for the national and universal allegiances. The above aspect indicates that the patriotism feelings are a result of political organization and distributive justice for the people living in definite boundaries. In contrary to the argument of Miller, Nussbaum talks about compassionate patriotism and broader cosmopolitan view. She quotes the Ravindranath Tagore’s views in his story ‘The Home of the World’ that the worshipping the country is different from serving the country as the former may result in not considering the flaws in patriotic feelings. The cosmopolitan view rises from the sharing of feelings of human beings but not from the pre decided agenda. Hence she expresses that the patriotism should be in a way to serve the people rather than raking up the emotions. She talks about human rights in the context of the global relations, national values and rational education system. All the above aspects decide the way patriotic feelings rise and breed in the minds of the people. The patriotic feeling that makes the students and youth think that US is above the remaining world and propaganda regarding it may result in envy and prejudice in the minds of lesser developed countries and are capable of breeding opposition to US. Does the opposition to US in various countries is inevitable in the era of global economics and relations? If the above idea is true, the broader cosmopolitan view of Nussbaum prevails over the patriotic view of Miller. Nussbaum discusses about the two communities, a human being has to face; one, the community of his birth and the other the community of human argument and aspirations. The community of human argument and aspiration leads to the fact that the growth of community can ensure the growth of neighboring and other communities as well as the countries. The universal citizenship view can develop relations between citizens of different countries as US encourages the talent shift from other countries to America. Hence, the broader cosmopolitan view can keep the patriotic rhetoric under control and can develop relations with other communities thus decreasing the chances of conflict between US and other countries.
Hence, according to above discussion, the Nussbaum’s view emerges as the suitable one in the backdrop of global economics and politics for a country like US. The patriotism within the broader cosmopolitan view not only can benefit US but also the other countries in the world who are a part of global economy and international society. The essay ‘Patriotism’ in the book of Emma Goldman (1910) quotes Leo Tolstoy’s opinion that the Patriotism is a principle to justify the training of murderers. When the training of military does not arise from defensive tactics and if it focuses on attacking others, the patriotic feelings that are enrooted in the minds of people by the government are the ones, which help the administrations’ attacking tactics using its military and patriotic feelings in the people. Emma Goldman states that the patriotism declares that the world is divided into small spots and each spot belongs to a particular community and supports conflicts between communities that are result of conceit, egotism and arrogance that evolve due to extreme patriotic feelings in the people and in the minds of political leadership.
Conclusion
The above discussion that contains the views of Martha Nussbaum, David Miller and Emma Goldman supports the view of Nussbaum’s broader cosmopolitan view that give strength to universal citizenship. As universal citizenship is capable of avoiding the conflicts between citizens of different countries by sharing the world in a mutually agreed manner the extremes of patriotism; arrogance, egotism and conceit can be contained. The resultant world that is dominated by the feeling of universal citizenship, which is a follow up of broader cosmopolitan view on patriotism can be expected to be more peaceful than the present world.
Bibliography
George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy, 2008, Quote Unquote. Web.
Martha Nussbaum, 2001, Can Patriotism can be Compassionate?, The Nation. Web.
David Miller, 1993, We Should Promote Patriotism, In Defense of Nationality in Journal of Applied Philosophy, Volume 10, Number 1.
Martha Nussbaum, 1994, We Should favor a Broader Cosmopolitan View, Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism of Boston Review.
Emma Goldman, 1910, Patriotism in Anarchism and Other Essays, Kennikat Press.