“A patriotic attitude is not a thing that I personally would consider worth admiring. I believe, even if we hold universal values in high esteem, it is possible to have a sense of identity, cohesiveness, and strength to promote certain matters. As I see it, a patriotic mentality creates or fosters war, or I should say, makes the majority of the people want to plunge into warlike sentiment. Very often, a minority that controls power uses patriotism as a tool to manipulate the masses. I just can’t bring myself to like such a thing…”

I saw a post similar to this one on a friend’s Facebook page. Although this was only her personal opinion, I still feel very much the same. Probably this is because opinion makers and netizens have been fencing off with each other over loving one’s “country”, “Hong Kong”,  “Taiwan” or loving “something else” since the Hong Kong situation has come to dominate the front pages. Once certain sentiment has been stirred up, it can easily spin out of control.

Moreover, we all believe that we are able to fairly gather sufficient objective information through the open Internet. But we rarely realize that most people are already trapped in echo chambers without being aware of it (or firmly believe that this information is all they need to know).

Fragmented information easily rules over masses that are becoming increasingly lazy about making their own judgments. This provides great opportunities for groups intending to manipulate public opinion to use big data analysis, psychological preferences, and specifically fed (or processed) news to change or radicalize [Internet] users’ thinking and behavior. Cambridge Analytica notoriously did just that to manipulate the U.S. presidential elections and the Brexit referendum in Britain. Have you been asking yourself whether similar shenanigans are taking place behind the scenes of the recent disturbances and conflicting narratives in Hong Kong? 

Ironically, no one admits that they have been duped by the “information war” like brainless idiots. Everyone believes they have formed their judgment after obtaining or receiving a large amount of adequate information. This is the case for many Chinese intellectuals, and we can say with certainty that it seems only clear and logical for Taiwan’s general public, which enjoys the freedom of expression. 

We all have a stance and should make good judgments based on our standpoint before picking fragmented and messy information to piece it together into the story we want and believe to be right.

Why Are We Going Crazy?

I will put the question of media, data and information bias aside for the time being because that discussion would provide enough material for a separate column. Instead I will return to patriotism, which this essay intends to discuss. Why are we going crazy? Why do we display a quasi-religious zeal, an ideological mindset that makes people lose their reason, that drives us to attack others who uphold different values by taking the moral high ground? And to make matters worse, why do we, once conflict has erupted, brag and boast that we stand on the right side of justice?

                       

As stated in the quote at the beginning of this article, if we return to the fundamental question, a patriotic mindset or these troubling influences bordering on patriotism are most likely the root of all “problems.” Here we could mention the “Taiwan is a part of China” tenet that the Chinese people have been force-fed since childhood, or the sense of impending doom that is sweeping Taiwan because of certain likely presidential candidates, or the fear of the Beijing government among young Hong Kong people and their aspiration for political rights…We could also point to any venue where politicians on stage manipulate the audience with populist messages and an obedient chorus responds from below. Why should we “love our country”? What does “country” stand for? How do we define it? How should we demonstrate and express our “love” in words and deeds?

If you ask me, this is a very complicated issue. I do not intend to discuss these simplified slogans such as love Taiwan, love Hong Kong, pro-China, pro-US. But I might, of course, not have built sufficient academic theoretical knowledge to deconstruct abstract concepts and then discuss them through empirical analysis.

However, there are a few papers that are quite interesting or at least able to clarify these concepts within their context. I would like to recommend readers who want to sharpen their swords before going into the “to be or not to be patriotic” debate to first read the following articles: Reviewing and Discussing the Problems Occurring in Taiwan: Taking Habermas’s Constitutional Patriotism for the Framework of Theoretical Explanation (Chi-wei Hsu, 2007) and Germany’s New Patriotism: Rebuilding National Identity (Yen-hsiang Yu, 2007). Or we could simply study the theories of several social theorists such as Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault and Edward W. Said before we engage in deep and meaningful discussions.

Admittedly, I was born and raised here in Taiwan, and most people have an emotional attachment to the place where they were born and grew up. But at the same time, we logically implant certain “concepts” in our brains due to the quiet, pervasive influence of our education and environment (or probably also influenced by international trends).

Clearly, kinship, ethnicity, society, culture, politics, economics, value systems and even the land and natural scenery as well as the truly existing or metaphysical things are all complex objects that can be extracted individually and provide a sense of differentiation, yet also easily fall hostage to subjective patriotic sentiment. Against the backdrop of numerous frames and contexts, we appear to be involuntarily or altogether directly jumping on the bandwagon of public sentiment to avoid drawing fire for non-conformist views. 

The Other Side of the Modern Citizen

Here is a simple example: Do I, as a Taiwanese, have to wave the national flag and cheer on the Taiwanese team at international competitions such as the Baseball World Cup “by all means”? Is gluing a sticker with the national flag on my face and recognizing the lettering “Taiwan” regardless of whether I know the team’s players all it takes to be able to join the frenzy around me without any sense of alienation? Why can’t I cheer for the Japanese team? Or even the Chinese team? If I truly admire them a lot for personal reasons? Of course, no one will stop you from doing this (at least not in a democratic country, I guess…), but for sure there will be people, and they will be the majority, who will denounce you as “not patriotic.” 

If we scale down such “love XX feelings” from the level of the “country” to leanings within the political spectrum, we will find a very similar situation. A while ago, same-sex marriage was formally legalized in Taiwan, presumably causing breakdowns in many conservative groups. But are you saying they don’t understand human rights? That’s not necessarily the case either. Certain people should still claim somewhat progressive views or at least feel that, “What does that have to do with me, I’m fine as long as this does not happen to my children.” But why was there such a big backlash? I overheard an elder argue loudly, saying: “The Tsai government is rotten. If they can’t handle the economy well, why do they spend such an effort on this homosexuality thing.”… Wait! Did you hear what he meant? It’s not that homosexuality is not good but (being brainwashed by) the Tsai government is bad, therefore all things that the Tsai government promotes can’t be good and vice versa.

When you already firmly believe in certain values so that you must “love XX” and “obey XX”, then people will easily fully support or flatly deny certain issues outright. They become very irritable because they believe that they are 100 percent right and that the other side must be heretics. As far as I am concerned, this greatly resembles the disaster-causing patriotism of the current pan-blue camp; in other words, this is precisely the other side of the modern citizen.

Citizens must be able to actively pay attention to public affairs; they must have the ability to think, criticize, show tolerance and engage in dialogue. The question of whether to love one’s country or love XX comes second and should not be used at all to blow things out of proportion.

“Why Can’t We Love the Land, Family, Neighborhood, Society, Culture…?”

What about the recent hubbub in Hong Kong (and China)? From the large amount of Internet posts, you can easily see that the “patriotism” on both sides has simply gotten out of hand, that people are forced to declare their stance, to take sides and then quote the classics (or forward images and texts) to hurl abuse and hoot down others. You say the information that these people come into contact with and share is fake? That’s not necessarily the case, but it is for sure not entirely true. Most such information has been deliberately filtered and displayed to intentionally or unintentionally provoke the masses. The more tense a situation is and the more everyone’s nerves are on edge, the better can differing biased information incite the most simple, violent patriotic sentiment.  

Have you read?
♦ Taiwan’s Online ‘Opinion War’ Arrived
♦ When I Discussed Democracy With Young Chinese
♦ Behind the Evolution of the Hong Kong Protest Slogans

Such violent love Hong Kong/love your country/love the party (?) sentiment often makes a thorough discussion of truly important topics impossible. The bloodshed, violence and beatings shown in news footage certainly deserve to be denounced. For the time being, we will not mention these narratives full of conspiracy theories and involvement by outside forces but solely look at the beatings. How come those who got rough first must have been irrational? Is the same philosophy, the same logic behind the violence of the demonstrators and the armed force used by police? The article Is the Armed Force of the Police fair and just and a matter of course? A Philosophical Self-Reflection has already discussed this question in depth. Those who frequently point to “the decadent youth in Hong Kong” had better first read it earnestly and then think for a while.

As for elevating love for Hong Kong to [aspirations for] Hong Kong independence: Seen from the stance of this article, this was conjured up by yet another “love X” mentality. Of course, it can’t be ruled out that this  constitutes a strategy habitually employed by social movements to clandestinely introduce a new topic or to heat up ongoing debate.

“Patriotism truly is a very strange thing. There are many things to be loved; why do we have to love the country of all things? Why can’t we just love the land, family, neighborhood, society, culture...?”

That’s the tenor of the comments left under the Facebook post. Of course, attacking this small conclusion is very easy; you just need to cite classical sayings such as “How can there be a family without a country” or offer the legalist argument that national sovereignty is paramount. You can even criticize it as being too utopian or emphasize the patriarchal thinking that stability and prosperity can only be guaranteed through the order and hierarchy provided by the state. We must acknowledge that there is still a lot of room for discussion. After all, when our homeland faces invasion, “patriotism” is still the tool that allows us to mobilize the entire populace the fastest and brainwash them into sacrificing their lives.

However, from a certain perspective, patriotism is definitely disconcerting. At least, the unquestioning simple thinking that tenets like “When a country is beaten, all its people suffer” encourage is truly frightening.

This article is reproduced under the permission of Crossing. It presents the opinion or perspective of the original author / organization, which does not represent the standpoint of CommonWealth magazine.

Translated by Susanne Ganz
Edited by TC Lin, Sharon Tseng

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Crossing features more than 200 (still increasing) Taiwanese new generation from over 110 cities around the globe. They have no fancy rhetoric and sophisticated knowledge, just genuine views and sincere narratives. They are simply our friends who happen to stay abroad, generously and naturally sharing their stories, experience and perspectives. See also Crossing Arab World.

Original content can be found at the website of Crossing: 信仰，認同，愛國主義：我們為什麼瘋狂？