Patriotism: Our biggest strength or weakness?

Our station Graphics Designer Michelle Clement posted a new picture atop the WNBZ website today. It's a really nice shot of the American Flag flying outside of the Tupper Lake LP Quinn Elementary School with Adirondack peaks in the background.

Emboldened with a recent re-read of Bertrand Russell's Political Ideals, in my opinion one of the finest mental exercises of the 20th century, I exclaimed, "Patriotism is the mother of tyranny."

Surely, patriotism has been regularly employed by the autocratic class to rouse the fury of the masses, to drive them into a predefined action that only furthers the agenda of the power-laden elite.

A quick look back at the rise of Nazi Germany stands alone as a clear example of this. No one understood the power of patriotic fervor, especially in a time of economic strife, as a means to rally and control the mob like the Nazis.

No one could put on a nationalistic show like Hitler.