Yet patriotism is one. There is a common center about which all the impulses, habits, and beliefs of the sentiment cluster. There is a concept “patriotism.” It is that concept, though perhaps inarticulate, which guides even in the gathering of material for its own definition. It will be enlarged after the preliminary examination, but it is present from the beginning.
The clue that one really has in hand when he sets out to study patriotism is the popular definition that it is “the love of country.”[142] And it is a hopeful clue from which to start. It does lead one to the material that he seeks. Moreover, it shows what patriotism has meant in racial wisdom, the wisdom of the plain people who have long and intimately been associated with and been most moved by the sentiment.
It must be said that in one way the result of an examination of this popular definition is negative. The preliminary study made in this dissertation shows that. Patriotism is hardly to be defined simply as the love of country. Devotion to one’s native land is in one phase an exalted and intelligent loyalty to country as an ideal, but it may show another character. Its nature has instinctive roots. It may be no more than a habit. Even the reasoned support of country is not exclusively what may be described as love; at any rate, it not uncommonly appears as a quite self-interested affection. The conduct of patriots has often been such as to cause wonder if the emotion consuming them were really pure, unmixed love. It has frequently seemed that there was mixed in a full portion of hate. The phrase, “the love of country,” covers a multitude of sins. Patriotism is a pure white light, but seems to be one in the sense that it can be broken up and any color desired extracted from it. Love of country, in view of such facts as these, frequently gets to look like something not quite the same as the exalted sentiment of school textbooks and Fourth-of-July oratory.
And yet there must have been some considerations that led to the definition of patriotism as the love of country. Out of what facts did the definition grow? In the light of all the instincts, habits, and reasons of patriotism, what does it seem that the phrase “the love of country” covers?
It seems obvious, for one thing, that patriotism is an attitude toward country. It is easily seen that “country” is a constant in the phenomena of patriotism. The country is the object of the patriot’s emotions. Patriotism, in other words, has to do with “mother country” or “fatherland.” And that is to say that patriotism is a feeling of nationality. “Patriotism is the sentiment in which consciousness of nationality normally expresses itself.”[143] One would not know where to look for patriotism at all if to begin with he did not know in a general way that it was this nationalistic sentiment. Generically, patriotism is like family pride, civic pride, team spirit, university spirit, and the like; specifically, it is nationalistic spirit. It might be necessary that this be said only for the sake of completeness were there not a confusion of language on the subject. It is, strictly speaking, a strange and metaphorical use of words to talk about “patriots of the world.” Such a combination of words may serve a useful purpose of propagandism in furthering a desirable spirit of internationalism or cosmopolitanism, and it may in time take on the further connotation, but it is not historically accurate. Patriotism in its meaning as a word and as a matter of fact has to do with a country, and it will serve to keep thinking clear if we hold the term to its historical meaning. Patriotism is the sentiment of attachment to one’s national group.
The quality of the sentiment impresses one. Patriotism is not merely consciousness of nationality. It is more active and explosive than that. It is not even such an emotion as that of thankfulness for the country. Thankfulness or joy, is the feeling of returning soldiers as they land back upon American shores. Is that feeling of satisfaction with the homeland at getting back, patriotism? A kind of love of country it may be said to be. But ask the man in the street if it is patriotism, and he will hesitate. He will, however, be quite sure that it is not anything like as patriotic as the acts of the same soldiers in going across to Europe, or in breaking up socialistic parades after they get back. The mere joy at being once more in the bosom of one’s country doesn’t seem to be patriotism par excellence. There appears to be a great difference between liking one’s country and loving it. The immigrant may like his new home, like it better than any other, and still not be patriotic. What is it that must be added to turn the liking of country into patriotism? Patriots demand homage to the country. Faith must be shown by works. Patriotism is a passion inspiring active allegiance. It is devotion that means service, if necessary “the service.” The patriot is solicitous for his native land. He not only pronounces his country good; he also wants some good for it. He is, moreover, determined upon that good. That it be secured and maintained is part of his ruling purpose. In sum, his will is set upon it. Patriotism has it as an essential characteristic that it includes a will towards one’s country.
What is it that the patriot wills? Briefly, he is vitally interested in the selfhood of his country. The thought of self as to the country is always present. Patriotism is the will that the country do some such thing as be, remain, express, or develop itself. The thorough-going patriot in so far as he is such, is interested in the country, the whole country, and nothing but the country.[144] It becomes the this of his consciousness and affection. He has just one object in the focus of his interests, and that object is this country. The patriot says, “This,—this is my own, my native land.” Patriotism shows an intense singleness of affection. The country for the patriot is the one.
And now, the fact that patriotism is a will toward the country as it is in and for itself may be expressed in another way by saying that the patriot has a will toward the country as an individual, and his will as to its selfhood is a will toward its individuality. A self is an individual considered as an identity. The country has an individual place in the patriot’s heart; and he desires a singleness of the country corresponding to his singleness of affection. Love of country has done what all love does; it has individualized its object. It makes its object the one, the individual, of its devotion. It is with country as with woman. A man can love but one.[144] It is the one to him. And he wants it to be the one among all others. What it means to him he wants it to be objectively.
And so patriotism may be described as the will to national individuality. It is individualism expressed upon the national plane. One can see what it is when he observes the reaction of patriots to any suggestion touching the identity of their country. Opposition to the proposal for a league of nations is patriotism. It is narrow, perhaps, but nevertheless patriotism it is. Those who oppose the idea are actuated by the fear that loyalty to the league will develop at the expense of loyalty to the nation. The patriot feels for his country, puts himself in its place, and cannot bear to see its selfhood or individuality impaired.
It should be noted that the will to individuality may exist in strong measure when the external basis for it seems to be weak, and vice versa. Switzerland has an active patriotism with a heterogeneous people, while Sweden has a weaker patriotism with a homogeneous people. However, this merely amounts to saying that patriotism is sometimes weak and sometimes strong. The nature of patriotism remains the same. There is simply a stronger set of stimuli urging it to express itself in the one case than in the other. And the fact of individuality is not exclusively the stimulus to the will to it. There might be a will to an individuality which as yet existed only in ideal, and there can be a real individuality which leads only to a very weak fervor for itself. In the case of Switzerland and Sweden, the explanation is that the Swiss have had to fight for their identity much more than the Swedish. There must, however, be an actual individuality at least possible in order to justify the will. What we are at present concerned with is the description of patriotism as a sentiment. Where there is patriotism it is such as described, whatever the stimuli may be. National individuality is what the Swiss aim at. The next chapter will take up the question of whether or not patriotism finds a real individuality to rest itself upon. An integrating spectroscope is a spectroscope the slit of which is illuminated by light from every part of the source under examination; this concept of the will to national individuality is the integrating spectroscope of the data of patriotism.