Curb Your Patriotism

Last updated on: July 13, 2016 at 7:38 pm by Marc

Curb Your Patriotism 2016-07-13T19:38:19-04:00 Marc

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Over at Those Catholic Men, I write:

Budweiser beer cans are called ‘America’ now.

Budweiser, of course, is owned by Anheiser-Busch, which is owned by AB InBev, an international Belgian-Brazilian company that produces Miller, Coors, Corona, Shocktop, Stella-Artois, Fosters — and most of the other beers you’d recognize.

The result being that a corporation with neither place nor responsibility to any community is using our place, and the sentiments of community it invokes, to sell their beer.

But before we blame the Belgian-Brazilians for their opportunism, let’s ask the tougher question: What about our sense of nation and community has made it possible for an international organization to milk our feelings of patriotism into buying bad beer and contributing to a placeless global economy? If the Belgians had sold our forefathers a beer called ‘America’, they would have bristled — and not just because of the taste.

Only a reduced sense of community that views ‘America’ as being so generalized, sum-uppable and monochromed could possibly make a connection between a population of 300+ million people and the drinking of one, boring beer.

Wendell Berry, in his essay “Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community”, makes this point:

“By community, I mean the commonwealth and common interests, commonly understood, of people living together in a place and wishing to continue to do so. To put it another way, community is a locally understood interdependence of local people, local culture, local economy, and local nature. (Community, of course, is an idea that can extend itself beyond the local, but it does so only metaphorically. The idea of a national or global community is meaningless apart from the realization of local communities.)”

Berry joins an ancient vision of the city as a community with limits. In his Laws, Plato argued that there should be no more people in the ideal city than “may fraternize with one another at the sacrifices and gain knowledge and intimacy, since nothing is of more benefit to the State than this mutual acquaintance,” and his pupil, Aristotle, argued that “the best limit of the population of a state is the largest number which suffices for the purposes of life, and can be taken in at a single view.” (Aristotle, Politics, Book 7, Part 4)

We cannot take in America at a single view. We cannot fraternize with the people of America. America is not a “interdependence of local people, local culture, local economy and local nature.” America, in a strict sense, is not a community.

America need not be a community. The problem is that our current views of patriotism pretends that America is a community, and this twists us into all sort of absurd positions.

Read the rest!

Another Look

Previous Post

July 1, 2016

The Weekly Pulp and Platter

Next Post

July 15, 2016 Onward, Affectionate Scientist!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Another Look Atheism Bad Catholics Beauty Communio Crookedhart Destupidification Exiting the Culture Wars Gender Theory That Doesn't Suck How To Language Liturgy! Love One Another Marriage Equality Modesty Music Objectification pop culture Poverty Sacraments Sex Technology The Best Religion in the World The Erotic Phenomenon Time Uncategorized Virtue Ethics That Don't Suck Winning the Culture Wars

Select a Month January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 July 2016 June 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which short letter urges forgiveness for a runaway slave named Onesimus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Titus 2 Timothy Philemon Jude