Patriotism

What does patriotism mean?

According to Merriam Webster, patriotism is love for or devotion to one's country. It is also said to be the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one's country. 

According to Wikipedia, patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to a country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, political, or historical aspects.
Mark Twain once said: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
The English word “patriot” is taken from the French word “patriote” which was originated from Late Latin “patriota”, meaning fellow countryman. It may have been taken from the Greek “patriotes” with the same meaning as in Latin. The term patriot was also "applied to barbarians who were perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive and who had only a common patris or fatherland."
Therefore, this word originated from words with two different meanings. One is fellow countryperson, and the other meaning is the fatherland itself. Later, this word was developed to combine both aspects, which was the love of the fatherland along with its inhabitants. So, when we say someone is patriotic, it means that the person loves his or her country along with those who live in it. People who live in the same geographical area usually have the same culture and speak the same language. This geographical area is not necessarily a country, as a country can have many provinces or towns, each with their own culture and language. Therefore, a patriotic person is the one who loves all the people in the town or village or city or the community he or she lives in, in addition to the land itself.
Now, we should see if we can find a person who falls in the last definition. We are looking for a person who loves the whole geographical area he or she lives in, in addition to all its inhabitants. There is definitely not even one person who could fall into this category! No matter how much we search, we cannot find a person who loves everyone living in that geographical area as he or she lives in. As for finding someone who would love the place that person lives in, meaning the physical structure of the place, that makes no meaning at all while people are used to and comfortable with the place they live in, but loving it is a different story. Growing up and living in a place, one becomes accustomed to the culture and the land, but that is not loving it.
We can analyze this further by breaking it down to more detail. Let’s go back to the definition at the beginning of this article: love for or devotion to one’s country. A country is a geographical area bordering other countries. It consists of water, dirt, and living organisms. How can someone develop a love for, or devote oneself to all of this? There is a space that we live in, and we call it home. We spend most of our time in our homes, sharing time with family by conversing, playing, eating, and sleeping. Whether we rent or buy our homes, that is the place that we feel most comfortable in. When we are comfortable living with our family, we share everything with them, and we do not want anyone to destroy this relationship. Of course, there is a deviation to this routine; when we cannot get along with our husbands or wives, and in that instance, we reach outside of our family to find someone we can create a new family structure with. On the other hand, some prefer to live by themselves, and they feel comfortable relaxing in and enjoying their solitude. But the general question is whether the person prefers to live with others or would rather his or her solitude, and does patriotism extend to our personal living structure too, or it is only love of the land?
The symbol of a country is its flag. We can occasionally observe homes (especially in the United States) with flags on the buildings or front yards symbolizing that nation. In addition, this love of homeland or patriotism is occasionally advertised in governments’ buildings and publications, any government in the world. Historically, we can see such government propaganda much more frequent in preparation of, or during a war. It is the flag which is often followed by a statement such as: “for the love of your country participate in the war against our enemies.” In addition to symbolizing a nation, the flag also represents or even enforces patriotism. It is a tool to acknowledge one’s patriotism towards a land, or perhaps a land including those living in it. Not everyone, beside of the government agencies and some people mentioned earlier, displays a flag on properties. As a joke, it is impossible to see, for example, a homeless person carrying a flag of his country! Also, those who must live in less economically advantageous areas would not wave a flag either. In fact, they are probably not patriotic since they do not receive an equal share of the wealth of their country.
We said that patriotism includes a country, a land, and those living in it. There is no doubt that family and relatives are the closest people one can think of, who also live in the same land. However, do I love everyone living in the same geographical area surrounding me? I may love humanity and try to support any humane values, but that does not fit in this definition. Therefore, it is the land where one can be patriotic about. For someone who lives in a different country from where that person was born and raised, that definition does not make any sense at all. One may have memories of his or her upbringing in the place where he or she was born and raised, but that is not patriotism. A person with the right mind, who values everyone as long as they value him or her in return, does not care about the nationality of the person, as millions of immigrants live and die in a place beside of where they were born and raised. A good example is the great majority of Americans.
Patriotism, with the present meaning of love of a country, is created by rulers to fool people into a war they had created, and in order to expand their territories or their wealth, or both. The notion of patriotism should be inclusive of all humanity. Presently, it means dying in a war for someone’s land. We must note that rulers hardly ever participate in a war themselves, as was the case in the old time when they fought in hand-to-hand combats. Those who join an army during a war are either forced by their governments to put their lives at the disposal of the rulers to satisfy their land or economic expansion, or they are fooled into it by patriotism. This term has been very effective so far, and one needs to think about the reason one would participate in a war, even if his or her own country is attacked by foreign forces. Of course, patriotism is not the only way rulers can fool people into a war. Religion is another tool, by promising people that they would go directly to heaven after they are killed! However, that is a different subject and needs its own space for discussion.