Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Monday, May 08, 2006

My country, 'tis of thee

When you look down upon the Earth from space, all you see is land, and water, and clouds, or if looking down upon the night side, the lights of cities. There are no lines on this globe to divide us. There are no divisions on this globe that say, "on this side lies Us, and on that side, lies Them." There is only land, and water, and humanity.

Countries are a fiction, arbitrary lines drawn upon a representation of the world by men of wealth and power, intended to divide the world into "Us" and "Them", where "Us" is good, and "Them" is evil. The whole point of this fiction is to keep us from loving our fellow man. Because if we loved our fellow man, then there could be no such thing as "wars" or "borders" that allow evil men to divide us and conquer us.

Am I patriotic? If you believe that "Love thy neighbor" is the one and only commandment, I have to say "No." Because the whole point of patriotism is love of "us" and hatred of "Them", for some definition of "Us" and "Them". Even if you disagree with the "hatred" part, patriotism by definition means that you love some of our fellow humans more than you love others. But that is not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves -- whether that neighbor is American, Mexican, Russian, Iraqi, or Nepalese. Any real Christian by definition cannot be patriotic, because patriotism means giving precedence to the dictates of Man over the teachings of Jesus Christ. A real Christian only has one loyalty, one kingdom -- the kingdom of Christ. The fictional kingdoms of Man are inherently irrelevant to a true Christian, because they are inventions of Man, not of God, and serve only to seperate Man from God.

- Badtux the Unpatriotic Penguin

Posted by: BadTux / 5/08/2006 12:25:00 PM

Comments:

My mother and I used to discuss this planet from an alien point of view, watching the Earth over the course of human history. We figured the aliens must thing we are the bloodiest, most ridiculous race of creatures in the galaxy.
# posted by Fixer : 8/5/06 1:13 PM

Penguin, you've lived among the primates all these years. Surely you must realize that a "country" is nothing more than a larger, fancier version of the average chimpanzee tribe?

As Saint RAW said, wild primates form packs, mark territories with their bodily excretions, and throw their excretions at once another. Domesticated primates mark their territories by making ink excretions on paper, and throw metal and checmicals at each other.

One can almost start believing that the Anti-Evolution crowd has a point, when one realizes how incredibly little humans have evolved in four million years...
# posted by Pope Horatio Tyrannosaurus Nixon Rex : 8/5/06 6:36 PM

Oh, geez... I started this, didn't I? The anthem post? Man, I'm sorry. Can I build you something?
# posted by Lab Kat : 8/5/06 7:36 PM

God Bless You, I having been saying this for years. Why say God Bless America, why not God Bless the World, God Bless Humanity.

Most people use religion and patriotism to validate their bigotry.
# posted by niCk (Mem Beth) : 9/5/06 5:49 AM

The problem is that other counties are full of foreigners. I have never been outside the United States, because foreigners smell funny. But, it is a fact that studies have shown that foreigners are not from here. The only solution is unleashing our nuclear arsenal, or a cartload of febreeze, but we already have the nukes.
# posted by NewsBlog 5000 : 9/5/06 9:15 AM

Wow this is well written. I've always considered patriotism and nationalism in this light but haven't seen it articulated this well.

Nice work.
# posted by Jeremy : 9/5/06 7:44 PM

good point. but 'by definition' is not the way individuals are, regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation.

but still, i like the discussion and it is well written.
# posted by Malcolm : 9/5/06 10:43 PM

I've long thought "patriotism" means "We don't have to be right".. when you think about it, people with truth on their side ('love thy neighbor' is a good one) don't need 'patriotism'..

In a slighty off topic vein, I found an interesting sticker the other day (forgive me if y'all already know about it - I don't get out much ;-)), a purple silhouette of the u.s. with the words "Purple States for Peace" on it.. I grabbed 3 - now if I could only find a purple globe sticker...
# posted by bobby : 10/5/06 10:59 AM

A number of astronauts have been profoundly changed by seeing the earth from above. They blast off as a patriot, & return as a true christian. One world, no boundaries, so fragile...
# posted by The Reality-Based Dave : 17/5/06 9:53 AM

Honor Roll

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Liberated Iraqis

Children celebrate liberation of parents
More pics of children celebrating
Liberated baby
Liberated women and children
More liberation, yessiree
More to follow, after I finish cursing SOB chickenhawks and get my breath back...

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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