Can patriotism be manipulated by people with malevolent intent? How would this be recognised?
The most common techniques are: 1: Demonize a class of people, as Hitler did the Jews, McCarthy did the Communists, and Bush is doing the Arabs, blame them on all the populace’s problems; 2. Use the public resentment to justify a war so the leader can look a Savior riding to the rescue of his people; 3. Link unquestioning support for the leader to patriotism, so that anyone who questions his policies can be denounced as a traitor; 4. Suppress dissent and vilify opposing viewpoints by outright lies and slander of any opposition. The principles go back to Demosthenes, who used them to whip up Athenian fervor against Alexander the Great sufficiently to start a war, a war in which Demosthenes himself deserted halfway threw his first battle and never went back. Goebbels used them to great effect during WW2, and we see them constantly on this forum today. There was a saying, quite popular among the peace movement of the ’60s, I was part of it, “My country right or wrong, if it’s right to kee
