As we have discussed in recent articles there are six themes that most of the country songs can be placed in; love, breaking up, drinking, patriotism, religion, and country living. In keeping with the workers' relation to the objects they have produced and which they need in order to live that passes through money, in keeping too with the religious believer's relation to their own potential for creativity, reason and love that passes through god and the various forms in which his spirit is thought to reside, people in their character as social beings relate to each other as "citizens" only through their shared relation to the state and its collection of patriotic symbols.
Kedourie, Elie, 1985, Nationalism, 3rd edition, London: Hutchinson. Whatever patriotism means to you, the chances are good that these are sentiments which are shared with others throughout the nation. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power." The other contrast, the one between attachment to one's country (patriotism) versus attachment to one's people and its traditions (nationalism), has also played a role.
To live humanly is to live in community; and to live morally, as a creature under God, is to love that community of which one forms a part. Love of one's own country characteristically goes together with dislike of and hostility towards other countries. The postmodern way approaches patriotism from a subjective, emotional viewpoint, leading to love of the country.
There are people who contributed to our country in various ways, and locations families can still visit that are significant to America's story - all of which are important for kids to learn about. In summary, the qualities of "local familial or community loyalty" and an "impersonal abstract legal loyalty" have remained part of the vocabulary of patriotism to the present day.
The main political power embodied in patriotic symbols is, as we saw, the power of connecting with others in the community. Patriotism not only has made Americans feel more strongly about their ideals, but also has led to excesses in which those ideals of tolerance and defense of basic rights are compromised in the name of patriotism.
Levels of patriotism vary across time, and among political communities. They insisted that in a diverse society with many people who had been born in other countries, citizens should pledge allegiance not to "my flag" but to the "flag of the
United States of America," a change that Congress formally recognized in 1942.
American patriotism is at its lowest ebb for almost two decades, a new poll has found. Adherents of both extreme and robust patriotism, on the other hand, love their country unconditionally, and stand by it whatever it does as long as its safety" or its large interests" more generally are concerned.