  My title for this piece would have been "The Momentum of Big Words. " It is a philosophical idea that I would like to explore in-depth in the future. 8. Who's American? (11/13/03) I'll never forget the first day of high school history, senior year: Mr. Smith (I've changed his name for the sake of anonymity) entered the classroom, removed an American flag from the wall and hurled it to the ground. "How does this make you feel? " he asked, stomping on the flag after every single word. The class was slack-jawed. "Remember this feeling," he said. "This is what 20th century history is all about. " Patriotism.
It's one of those words -- like art, terrorism, evil, love and God -- that I cannot define, except to say, "I know it when I feel it. " And I felt a patriotic rage that morning watching Mr. Smith step on the Stars and Stripes, especially since he was a well-known socialist and draft-dodger. The feeling surprised me. I didn't think I was the patriotic type. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many Americans who never thought of themselves as patriotic were suddenly overcome by a similar rage. Rhetoric changed overnight. The Mr. Smiths of the world -- the self-identifying proud anti-patriots -- joined the dinosaurs as an extinct species.
The question, "Can one be unpatriotic and a good citizen? " fell away into thin air. Now, the guy burning the American flag at an anti-war rally claims to be a patriot; that dissent is patriotic. The most unpatriotic legislation in my lifetime appropriates the word, along with a tortured, Orwellian title. And CEOs trip over themselves to market their product as the most patriotic brand of toothpaste or fabric softener.
The natural momentum of big words is to grow ever bigger and more inclusive, so inclusive that they become meaningless: Everyone is patriotic, everything is art, any act of violence is terrorism, everyone bad is evil, every good feeling is love, God is everywhere and everything. I usually denounce these definitions as philosophically lazy, but, in the case of patriotism, I think it is a good thing... urlLink [more here] 
