Patriotism: A Seventh Similarity between Communism and Democracy

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Patriotism: A Seventh Similarity between Communism and Democracy

By Frank Li, Ph.D. Founder & President, West-East International, Inc.

May 2, 2013

In my book Saving America, Chinese Style, I identified six similarities between communism and democracy as follows: 1) Destruction of capitalism 2) Brainwashing 3) Ideology 4) Kleptocracy 5) `You didn't build that' 6) Stupidity.

In this article, I will identify patriotism as a seventh major similarity between communism and democracy.

1. What is patriotism? According to Wikipedia, "Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences

caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy. In a generalized sense applicable to all countries and peoples, patriotism is a devotion to one's country."

2. My view of patriotism It's simple and straightforward in two points as follows: 1) People are patriotic by default. 2) While most people love their own country by default, they do not necessarily love or even like the government. In other words, just because you do not like your government, it does not mean you do not love your country. Unfortunately, all too often, some people, especially many self-serving politicians, equate the love for a country to the love for its government, and vice versa. It was a wide-spread practice in Communist China (1949-1976), and it appears to be increasingly popular in democracy, such as France and even America.

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3. Gerard Depardieu Here is a recent news story: Gerard Depardieu `pleased' to become Russian Citizen. Here

is an excerpt:

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to French actor Gerard Depardieu ... Depardieu (pictured below) decided to change his citizenship following a tax reform by French President Francois Hollande, levying a 75% tax on citizens earning more than one million euros per year ... French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called Depardieu's decision to quit France "pathetic" and "unpatriotic."

How ironic is this story? Two points: 1) A successful French actor became a Russian citizen a little more than two decades after

communism collapsed in the former Soviet Union. 2) The way he has been treated at home (i.e. France) is little different from the way

communist leaders treated their citizens in the former Soviet Union or Communist China (1949-1976), from asset confiscation to name calling of "unpatriotic"! Bad politicians use "unpatriotic" as a euphemism for "opposing my policy"!

4. Patriotism in America I watch news on TV daily and noticed that a lot of folks coming back to America from the

wars receive a hero's welcome. The photo below shows an example.

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On the other hand, it is my understanding that the U.S. news media is censoring itself by not broadcasting the scenes of casualty returns, such as the photo below.

While it's difficult to accept the political reason behind media "bias", I was deeply disturbed after reading the 7/22/2012 issue of Time Magazine, whose cover story was "The War On Suicide". Here is an excerpt:

"Every day, one U.S. soldier commits suicide. Why the military can't defeat its most insidious enemy?"

Furthermore, according to the 1/28/2013 issue of Time Magazine, there were 349 U.S. military suicides in 2012, more than the 295 troops killed in combat in Afghanistan during 2012.

What a total tragedy! It led to a basic question in my mind for many years: Why is America, only America, involved in so many wars on earth?

When a war and the word "patriotism" are so closely linked in America today, it brings strong recollection of my previous life in China ...

5. Patriotism in Communist China (1949-1976) Communism means abject poverty and an absolute lack of freedom. So it's not easy to

rule in communism. A powerful tool used by the rulers in Communist China was patriotism. Two examples:

Put up with the hardship now, as life will eventually get better. Keep hoping, as it's a patriotic thing to do!

Fight against the international enemies, as they all hate China (e.g. the Two Opium Wars with the British and the two Sino Japanese Wars).

Now, a personal story: one of my uncles joined the People's Volunteer Army in 1951, and was sent to Korea to "fight against the American aggressors" for a key reason: "it's better to fight them over there than here", so was the Korean War portrayed in China at that time.

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So, officially, he went to Korea as a patriotic duty!

Here are the two real reasons behind his going to Korea: 1) He had nothing better to do. 2) He viewed it as a way to escape poverty.

How did he fare in Korea? Well, a few days after he crossed the Yalu River, he lost one toe to frostbite during a very cold night and was immediately sent back home. Of course, he was warmly welcomed back, just as he was warmly sent off. Additionally, as a wounded war veteran, he was relatively well taken care of by the government. He passed away a few years ago at age 82.

Can you draw a little analogy between my uncle and a veteran in the U.S. today? While different people join the military for different reasons, patriotism has been a big draw, correctly or incorrectly.

6. Patriotism in America, again Democracy, as we know it today, means more and more poverty (e.g. Poverty In The U.S.

By The Numbers) and less and less freedom (economic freedom) in America. Although neither is as bad as in Communist China yet, the worst is yet to come.

It's not easy to be a "ruler" in America ? you must remain popular in order to be re-elected again (and again). One effective way to do it is to keep the defense industry strong. The major downside is that the world must have conflicts and America must have enemies ...

With conflicts and enemies come the excessive needs of keeping the defense industry strong and the exaggerated need of sending troops everywhere, often in the name of patriotism. As a result, since the Cold War ended in 1989, America has been busily involved in many conflicts all over the world, especially in the Middle East (U.S. Middle East Policy: What's Wrong?). Remember this picture?

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WMD was the justification America invaded Iraq in 2003, which turned out to be totally false. Here are some stats about the Iraq War: Tens of thousands of Iraqis died. What about the U.S. casualties? 4,486 deaths and over 100,000 wounded! But for what? George W. Bush`s re-election, most likely! For more, read: Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War and Blagojevich and Pearl Harbor: They Are Related!

Another justification for the Iraq War was "it's better to fight them over there than here." The similarity to the Korean War as it was portrayed in China is obvious.

Oh, do you know someone who went to the Iraq War? If yes, what was his/her official reason? Patriotism, like my uncle's?

1) If yes, then America's brainwashing machine has actually worked better than Communist China's propaganda machine.

2) If no, have you found out the real reasons yet? If no, maybe in a few years. Meanwhile, read: Dumb and Dumber ? The U.S. Army lowers recruitment standards ... again.

Now, what about The Afghan War: Read: For Obama the Road to Reelection Runs through Kabul. Here is an excerpt:

"The real goals of the Afghanistan escalation are domestic and electoral ... The real purpose of these 300,000 soldiers is to make Obama look tough as he heads toward the next US presidential election."

While the reality is debatable, the perception alone is frightening! Michael Hastings's article (The Runaway General) further confirms the perception. Worse yet, it is patently obvious that the troop withdrawal plan was timed perfectly for President Obama's re-election schedule. Apparently, no price was too high for Americans to pay for President Obama's reelection!

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