Patriotism-what it is and what it's not, IMHO.

Mark Twain said that an American should love his country always and its leadership only when deserved."
George Bernard Shaw observed "Patriotism is the inane belief that one's country is superior to all others, merely by virtue of the fact that you were born in it."
These two quotes raise interesting questions about just what patriotism means. Firstly, I agree with Twain, especially in this era when we seem to have been cursed by the most anti-Constitution, anti-democratic, crude impersonators of statesmen and leaders, perhaps in this nation's history.
Twain's implied definition of patriotism is one that I have no disagreement with.
He meant I believe, that in so far as your country exalts and is fidelitous to noble, honorable and even spiritual ideals, then it is something to be revered, defended and perpetuated.
Knowing Twain and what he stood for, could there be ANY doubt that he would hold the current usurpers of the White House in his highest contempt? Why? Because they are unabashed, flagrant and cynical assassins of the ideals that were conceived by brilliant men, students of the Enlightenment, 230 years ago.
He would no doubt see them as the TRUE enemies of freedom, democracy, justice and compassion--the ideals that have made America the "Shining hope of the world."
Again, Twain's patriotism should be the feeling of pride one gets from belonging to a culture that that is so arranged to make the "pursuit of happiness", by "men created equal" a reality, rather than just a hollow slogan.
Shaw's quote, however, moves us into a different approach to the concept of patriotism or nationalism.
Shaw, in his epigram, refers to a phenomenon well-known to psychologists and psychiatrists. In this concept, the individuals in the given society make the concept of nation into an idol--an abstraction into which they then project their own ideals and virtuous assets--thereby, in effect, worshipping themselves in an an alienated form.
In other words, patriotism becomes a manifestation of collective narcissism--we build our own tower of idealized greatness and then pledge to it our worship and fealty, as if it were something outside ourselves.
Through this process of identification with our self -created idol, our individual spirit and reason becomes subsumed to the collective "WE"--
The power of this abstraction called My Country is strong enough to make people volunteer to go off to foreign lands to kill strangers who we have been told are our enemies because of their alleged transgressions against the collective "WE".
Not only is the danger of this form of national worship perpetual war with real or imagined enemies, but the distortion of the ability to reason due to the process being tainted by the sancrosant assumptions,premises and parameters the Collective WE imposes on itself.
But this is a spiritual sickness that not only has been identified by psychology, but also the great religious and spiritual teachers, from Moses to Jesus to Buddha. One of the Ten Commandments tells us that we shall worship no graven images before God--what then is a flag or any other patriotic symbol? How different from the Golden Calf?
Twain, therefore, seems to be able to live with an idea of patriotism that is one of feeling proud (but then is not pride a sin?) of being part of a nation that unhypocritically, and with honor, lives up to its ideals.
If I may drop in another esteemed name, Oscar Wilde called patriotism "The virtue of the vicious!" In Twain's concept of the word he would be wrong. However, Wilde, the artist and visionary has seen how the man-made idol becomes appropriated by those bellicose elements in society who see it as something to be prideful, even arrogant about in an 'Us against them' sense-- it's just a short step from there for this prideful patriotism to become a rationale for war, destruction and the causing of unimaginable horror and misery.
Love your country, I would sum up, if your country is about love, non-exclusivity, compassion and spirituality --not when it exalts greed, aggresssion, expansionism and violence, but still identifies and proclaims itself as the opposite of these catastrophic vices.