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This is a Patriot’s Journey post. Remember to check out the other Patriotic Journeyers: Drumwaster, The Bastage and the folks at The Line Is Here…
Throughout history, patriotism and the fulfillment of duty have been considered among the highest virtues. Perhaps the highest virtues.
In the Iliad, Achilles was angry at Agamemnon and thought that the war wasn’t worth his effort. However, in the end, he completed his duty, rising to the call and going into battle for Greece.
The central theme of the Aeneid was Aeneas’s sacrifice for duty. He abandoned all of his personal desires to fulfill his duty to his country, to establish a new empire.
The civilizations to which we owe our modern thought, to which we owe our own civilization, all praised patriotism and fulfillment of duty. Yet today, some say that dissent is patriotic, that duty should not be required, that when duty interferes with personal interests or beliefs, it should be ignored.
I’ll agree that dissent is required in some cases, but too often it walks a fine line with treason. I’m instead aligned with the seers of old, with Homer and Virgil, with the civilizations that generated our modern society. I’m a patriot and try to be a responsible citizen.
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