Many of my friends / colleagues know that I'm pretty intensly patriotic.   On the Left coast where cynicism is so often mistaken for sophistication, I'm a bit of a curiosity.  But I *really* do love this country, am proud of most of its history & philosophy and have a hard time imagining a better place for myself or my progeny.

In public discourse, the "right" is far more tainted by wacko members of the "far right" than the left and its counterparts on the far left.  Critics rather quickly play the Nazi card against the right to argue against a harsh / martial "Fatherland."  Distinctions between the Libertarian and Authoritarian/Virtuous Right are bulldozed away.   However, the equivalent charge of Stalinism is rarely levied against the left-inspired creeping nannystate.    When the "left" does criticize the "far left" the argument is often tantamount "society isn't ready for you yet."   They find fault not in the underlying idea (government created Equality) but rather in some transient, improper execution (Socialism).

Patriotism, unfortunately, is a frequent victim of association with militant nationalism of the far right.  The far left vilifies patriotism and finds a scornful pleasure and moral one-upsmanship by finding ways to denigrate it.   The near left often merely views flag wavers as, well, unsophisticated.

I think of patriotism as something that naturally stems from evolutionary kin selection and is a positive sum game.  We all prefer to live in a family that sacrifices for each other for familial gain and there are strong evolutionary reasons for us to have and act on these impulses.  Loving my family doesn't automatically throw me into conflict with other families.   No doubt it's been an ingredient in past conflicts but it's almost never been sufficent.  We can even love our family and hate nepotism.

Moving from genes closer to memes, I prefer to live in a community of individuals who are willing to go beyond a purely individual risk / reward calculation to sacrifice for the community.   And similarly, I find a psychic reward in the knowledge that I'm willing to do the same - not for a public recognition but for a deeply personal / internal one.   Evolution has ingrained in me a small personal glow when I feel like I've done something good.

At a small scale, it's things like neighborly behavior turning down the stereo late at night and so on.  Even the blog, in some respects, is an instance of engaging my neighbors of a different sort.  On a larger scale, it's my deep respect for the community servents from police to firemen to the armed forces.   My hope (or fear?) that I could do what they do when called upon is a recognition of just how meaningful their services are to all of us.  

My patriotism is a love of country and declaration that I will go above and beyond my narrow interests for it and praise those who do.   It's as natural to me as love of family and as sophisticated in its genesis as kin selection and game theory.   It's also an affirmation of the deep principles it was founded upon.   The numerous occasions where we've strayed from those beliefs (for ex., Slavery despite our professed Individualism ) aren't reasons to throw out those beliefs (for ex., Group oriented policies).   They are merely recognition that the founding fathers put us in a long journey so utterly unprecedented in Human history that I feel honored to participate in.