My Country, 'Tis of Thee...

I've always been of two minds about patriotism. On the one hand, I honestly believe that the United States of America is the last great hope of mankind. On the other hand, I'm keenly aware of our failings, both historical and contemporary. I still get choked up when I hear "The Star-Spangled Banner," but I'm angry when I see militant bigots (who'd happily have left my grandparents to die in Germany, Russia and Poland) style themselves "patriots."

Maybe instead of asking who's "really" patriotic we ought to be asking what it is we should be patriotic about. What is the United States?  If you want a geographical definition that's easy, and the boundaries are clear, even if you include places like American Samoa. Is all this territory what we should be patriotic about? Sure, we've got majestic purple mountains, fruited plains, all that and more, and if our cities aren't quite alabaster maybe we can still fix them. But lots of countries have that stuff. We get emotional over them because they're ours, just as the Europeans get emotional over their various Alps and the Nepalese, the Himalayas. 

How about our struggles and conquests? We've fought wars agaist tyrranical empires and saved uncounted millions in the process. But then we've also fought among ourselves, taken a good bit of our country from weaker neighbors, wasted lives in ill-conceived and poorly managed conflicts. We're certainly no worse and most likely better in that respect than any other country, kingdom, empire or tribe throughout history, but we probably shouldn't be singing about it. 

How about domestically? We've taken in millions from all parts of the world, all those huddled masses who could breathe more freely here than wherever they were born. My family was among them. But what did all those masses get when they arrived? Not joyful welcome. Most often not even grudging acceptance. What they got was a chance to fight for a better place in the world, and often it was a fight with real casualties. That others, born here, had to fight against our sins of slavery and Jim Crow as well as garden-variety bigotry
hardly inspires pride. That still others had their freedom and hard-won progress stripped away by our own government is in stark and shameful contrast to our ideals of equal opportunity. Once again, being better in this regard than any other nation throughout history should encourage us to try harder, but isn't the stuff of which Independence Day celebrations should be made. 

So, finally, what is? We need to ask ourselves what the United States is, really. What makes us a nation, what allows us to keep trying to do better despite our human failings and those of our founders. If there's anything we can be proud of, anything we can celebrate, it's that.

 It starts with a phrase that was unique in its concept and is still unique in its spirit:
"We, the People of the United States..."

There is nothing like this document in the history of the world. The Constitution is the United States. Without it all the rest is just...scenery. Politics. Bombast.  Without the touchstone of the Constitution the geographic and political entity on our maps is just another empire, fated to die in fire and blood like every other empire before it. My loyalty, my patriotism, is always and forever to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Power

How can we lose when we're so sincere?

Charlie Brown, in Peanuts

The Second Amendment to the Constitution is under attack as never before. The excuse is the murders in Newtown CT , Aurora CO and other places. Make no mistake, though: these are simply excuses to enact intentions held for years. The real goal is to gut the Bill of Rights, and always has been. The same people who exploit the fears of the caponized pacifists will then turn their attention to "common sense speech control" and "common sense religion control." We've mostly given up on due process already. It's been done before, it's going on now, and anyone who thinks the US is immune is dreaming. People are people, all over the world and throughout history. Don't believe me? Read "The Politics of Obedience: Discourse on Voluntary Servitude" by Etienne de La Boetie. Written in the 16th century, by a Frenchman no less, it describes our situation with frightening precision.

What do we see opposing the latest wave of totalitarianism? Reasoned discourse. I can't recall how many editorials I've read which, with commendable logic and using the best available data, point out that gun control is absolutely ineffective in accomplishing the (publicly) stated goals of the gun-ban lobby. That's true, and it matters nothing. This isn't about reason and data.

Get over the idea that the Constitution protects anything. The Constitution is the embodiment of some of humanity's noblest ideals, but by itself gives no more protection than their Torah scrolls did to the Jews of Europe. What does matter? Power.

What is power, then? In physics power is the rate at which work is done, that is, accomplishing some change in the world. Work is accomplished when a force acts on an object, displacing it. So--- power depends on resources, but power doesn't exist until resources are used to accomplish work. Socially, money is not power. Guns are not power.
People are not power. Knowledge is not power. A supertanker full of gasoline is only a toxic spill waiting to happen until it is converted into a force, say a push on a piston via controlled combustion. When the piston moves a distance, that's work, and when that work is repeated over time you have power.

No resource confers power unless it is used and no power is produced without cost. That's a law of nature, as true socially as it is physically. How much power one can produce, at what cost, depends on how efficiently our mechanism works. If two mechanisms are opposed, like linked locomotives pulling in opposite directions, the better designed and operated one will dominate. The same is true in civil conflict, whether electoral or armed.

So far, those who stand for the Constitution have spent resources creating the political equivalent of sound and fury. It may make us feel good to watch, but like a fireworks display over a gulag it doesn't leave us any better off. What's necessary is to use the resources we have--the people, the money, the time, the intelligence-- to create and apply power. Force, multiplied by leverage, over time.

How should that power be used? The first thing we think of is resistance, because all we really want is to be left alone to live peacefully. But that's playing defense, and you can't win playing defense. You just lose more slowly. To win we need to use power to build something, to offer an alternative to the gilded prison that our opponents are creating. Power has to be used to communicate and persuade, as well as to dominate.  As to tactics, I'll leave that to the more knowledgeable. A man's got to know his limitations. But our goal should always be to win. Period.