THE WILL TO NATIONAL INDIVIDUALITY
Patriotism is a complex sentiment. It grows out of a great variety of
roots and reasons, and finds expression in many forms. In the preceding
parts of this treatise these foundations and expressions of patriotism
have been dealt with. They throw light upon the questions of why
patriotism is and why it is what it is. It remains for patriotism to be
defined.
No one of the many causes or appearances of the sentiment adequately
defines it. Those who fix upon some one impulse, habit, or reason, and
try to fit all the facts of patriotism into that, oversimplify the
situation. They leave out essential features. This would hold true of
J. M. Robertson,[137] who makes patriotism to consist of the impulses
of fear and hatred. There are important kinds of patriotism, directed
toward the internal improvement of the country for instance, which
cannot be so classified. If one followed the clue of Trotter,[138] he
would explain the phenomenon as the result of the herd instinct. But
patriotism is not purely instinctive. Veblen[139] would lead one to make
the economic motive and the impulse of rivalry or emulation prominent.
But patriotism is something more than a contest and a contest, too,
which is mainly for material goods. Loisy[140] would make patriotism a
worthy religion, and recommend it as such. But the love of country does
not always attain the dignity that it has in Loisy. Powers[141] makes
men’s interest in their civilization the root of their patriotism. But
he opens his book with the recognition that men do fight over material
things. None of these accounts can be used as an adequate basis from
which to define and present the central concept of patriotism.
Yet patriotism is one. There is a common center about which all the
impulses, habits, and beliefs of the sentiment cluster. There is a
concept “patriotism.” It is that concept, though perhaps inarticulate,
which guides even in the gathering of material for its own definition.
It will be enlarged after the preliminary examination, but it is
present from the beginning.
The clue that one really has in hand when he sets out to study
patriotism is the popular definition that it is “the love of
country.”[142] And it is a hopeful clue from which to start. It does
lead one to the material that he seeks. Moreover, it shows what
patriotism has meant in racial wisdom, the wisdom of the plain people
who have long and intimately been associated with and been most moved
by the sentiment.
It must be said that in one way the result of an examination of this
popular definition is negative. The preliminary study made in this
dissertation shows that. Patriotism is hardly to be defined simply as
the love of country. Devotion to one’s native land is in one phase an
exalted and intelligent loyalty to country as an ideal, but it may show
another character. Its nature has instinctive roots. It may be no more
than a habit. Even the reasoned support of country is not exclusively
what may be described as love; at any rate, it not uncommonly appears
as a quite self-interested affection. The conduct of patriots has
often been such as to cause wonder if the emotion consuming them were
really pure, unmixed love. It has frequently seemed that there was
mixed in a full portion of hate. The phrase, “the love of country,”
covers a multitude of sins. Patriotism is a pure white light, but
seems to be one in the sense that it can be broken up and any color
desired extracted from it. Love of country, in view of such facts as
these, frequently gets to look like something not quite the same as the
exalted sentiment of school textbooks and Fourth-of-July oratory.
And yet there must have been some considerations that led to the
definition of patriotism as the love of country. Out of what facts did
the definition grow? In the light of all the instincts, habits, and
reasons of patriotism, what does it seem that the phrase “the love of
country” covers?
It seems obvious, for one thing, that patriotism is an attitude
toward country. It is easily seen that “country” is a constant in the
phenomena of patriotism. The country is the object of the patriot’s
emotions. Patriotism, in other words, has to do with “mother country”
or “fatherland.” And that is to say that patriotism is a feeling of
nationality. “Patriotism is the sentiment in which consciousness of
nationality normally expresses itself.”[143] One would not know where
to look for patriotism at all if to begin with he did not know in a
general way that it was this nationalistic sentiment. Generically,
patriotism is like family pride, civic pride, team spirit, university
spirit, and the like; specifically, it is nationalistic spirit. It
might be necessary that this be said only for the sake of completeness
were there not a confusion of language on the subject. It is, strictly
speaking, a strange and metaphorical use of words to talk about
“patriots of the world.” Such a combination of words may serve a
useful purpose of propagandism in furthering a desirable spirit of
internationalism or cosmopolitanism, and it may in time take on the
further connotation, but it is not historically accurate. Patriotism in
its meaning as a word and as a matter of fact has to do with a country,
and it will serve to keep thinking clear if we hold the term to its
historical meaning. Patriotism is the sentiment of attachment to one’s
national group.
The quality of the sentiment impresses one. Patriotism is not merely
consciousness of nationality. It is more active and explosive than
that. It is not even such an emotion as that of thankfulness for the
country. Thankfulness or joy, is the feeling of returning soldiers as
they land back upon American shores. Is that feeling of satisfaction
with the homeland at getting back, patriotism? A kind of love of
country it may be said to be. But ask the man in the street if it is
patriotism, and he will hesitate. He will, however, be quite sure that
it is not anything like as patriotic as the acts of the same soldiers
in going across to Europe, or in breaking up socialistic parades
after they get back. The mere joy at being once more in the bosom of
one’s country doesn’t seem to be patriotism _par excellence_. There
appears to be a great difference between liking one’s country and
loving it. The immigrant may like his new home, like it better than
any other, and still not be patriotic. What is it that must be added
to turn the liking of country into patriotism? Patriots demand homage
to the country. Faith must be shown by works. Patriotism is a passion
inspiring active allegiance. It is devotion that means service, if
necessary “the service.” The patriot is solicitous for his native land.
He not only pronounces his country good; he also wants some good for
it. He is, moreover, determined upon that good. That it be secured
and maintained is part of his ruling purpose. In sum, his _will_ is
set upon it. Patriotism has it as an essential characteristic that it
includes a _will_ towards one’s country.
What is it that the patriot wills? Briefly, he is vitally interested in
the _selfhood_ of his country. The thought of _self_ as to the country
is always present. Patriotism is the will that the country do some such
thing as be, remain, express, or develop itself. The thorough-going
patriot in so far as he is such, is interested in the country, the
whole country, and nothing but the country.[144] It becomes the _this_
of his consciousness and affection. He has just one object in the
focus of his interests, and that object is _this country_. The patriot
says, “_This_,--_this_ is my own, my native land.” Patriotism shows an
intense singleness of affection. The country for the patriot is _the
one_.
And now, the fact that patriotism is a will toward the country as it
is in and for itself may be expressed in another way by saying that
the patriot has a will toward the country as an individual, and his
will as to its selfhood is a will toward its individuality. A self is
an individual considered as an identity. The country has an individual
place in the patriot’s heart; and he desires a singleness of the
country corresponding to his singleness of affection. Love of country
has done what all love does; it has individualized its object. It makes
its object the one, the individual, of its devotion. It is with country
as with woman. A man can love but one.[144] It is the one to him. And
he wants it to be the one among all others. What it means to him he
wants it to be objectively.
And so patriotism may be described as the will to national
individuality. It is individualism expressed upon the national plane.
One can see what it is when he observes the reaction of patriots to
any suggestion touching the identity of their country. Opposition to
the proposal for a league of nations is patriotism. It is narrow,
perhaps, but nevertheless patriotism it is. Those who oppose the idea
are actuated by the fear that loyalty to the league will develop at the
expense of loyalty to the nation. The patriot feels for his country,
puts himself in its place, and cannot bear to see its selfhood or
individuality impaired.
It should be noted that the will to individuality may exist in strong
measure when the external basis for it seems to be weak, and _vice
versa_. Switzerland has an active patriotism with a heterogeneous
people, while Sweden has a weaker patriotism with a homogeneous people.
However, this merely amounts to saying that patriotism is sometimes
weak and sometimes strong. The nature of patriotism remains the same.
There is simply a stronger set of stimuli urging it to express itself
in the one case than in the other. And the fact of individuality is not
exclusively the stimulus to the will to it. There might be a will to an
individuality which as yet existed only in ideal, and there can be a
real individuality which leads only to a very weak fervor for itself.
In the case of Switzerland and Sweden, the explanation is that the
Swiss have had to fight for their identity much more than the Swedish.
There must, however, be an actual individuality at least possible in
order to justify the will. What we are at present concerned with is the
description of patriotism as a sentiment. Where there is patriotism
it is such as described, whatever the stimuli may be. National
individuality is what the Swiss aim at. The next chapter will take up
the question of whether or not patriotism finds a real individuality
to rest itself upon. An integrating spectroscope is a spectroscope the
slit of which is illuminated by light from every part of the source
under examination; this concept of the will to national individuality
is the integrating spectroscope of the data of patriotism.
But the term individuality is an elastic one. It is necessary that it
should be so. It has to be able to cover a great deal as a concept
defining patriotism, for the manifestations of patriotism are various.
Patriotism is so manifold that the limits of the definition cannot
be drawn too closely. Individuality is a comprehensive term. It is,
however, comprehensible. What does it mean? What are the main forms
that the will to national individuality takes? And are the main forms
of patriotism discovered in the answer to that question? Does a
knowledge of the characteristics of an individual furnish the material
for the understanding of the tendencies of patriotism?
The first characteristic of an individual is that it is unique. This
proposition is agreed upon by practically all philosophers whatever
may be the school of metaphysics to which they belong. All would
agree with Royce, for instance, in saying that, “An individual is
unique. There is no other of its individual kind. If Socrates is an
individual, then there is only one Socrates in the universe. If you are
an individual, then in reality there is no other precisely capable of
taking your place. If God is an individual, then, as ethical monotheism
began by saying, _There is no Other_.”[145] “Taken individually” means
taken separately. Individuality means, in some sense, separateness.
An individual case is a distinct or isolated case. When, therefore,
one demands that he be allowed to be an individual, he means that he
demands the right _to be and remain himself_.
And just this is a fundamental demand in patriotism. It is of no use
to tell a country, even though it seems to others an insignificant
one, that it will be better off in another country; that its citizens
could enjoy to a greater extent the physical satisfactions of life; and
that they will be able to share in a greater _kultur_. They will not
listen. They do not wish to live more comfortably as animals; they do
not wish to live under the ægis of some one else’s greatness, no matter
how great that may be. An individual will hardly consent to unself
himself. The citizens of any country wish to be themselves, and retain
their own national individuality. Veblen[146] suggests that so far as
creature comforts are concerned, we might all be fairly well off if we
voluntarily surrendered to Germany. Art might also be furthered. And
in view of the high cost of resistance, so Veblen says, it might be
well to accept the German imperial rule. But Veblen also knows that no
nation will listen to his proposal. And why? It is simply because we do
not live primarily for creature comforts, or that a classical science
and philosophy should be developed. Self-preservation is the first
law of nature. We want to exist, and exist as separate and unique. We
want to be ourselves, and have an individuality that has a continuous
history of its own. At its lowest terms, the will to individuality is a
will to live. France will not listen to a counsel to negate that will;
neither will Belgium; neither will Britain; neither will America; and
neither will Germany. Patriotism seeks to make the country unique; that
very will itself becomes a factor making for the uniqueness of the
country. The country is what the patriot wills; it is his; he cherishes
it; and in its place he will accept no other. The will to uniqueness,
which is a form of the will to individuality, does in fact turn out to
be one of the important forms of patriotism.
In the second place, an individual is a unitary being. It is one
whole, an individuum. In comparison with others, it is separate;
in its own inner constitution, it is a unity. It is _one_ in both
its external and internal relations. Unity is of two grades, simple
and complex. The simple unity means solidarity and that in the last
analysis the individual cannot be further subdivided. An atom would
be an individual of this kind. But in our actual experience we do not
meet with such individuals. What we ordinarily mean by an individual
is not that which is such by virtue of its indivisibility. Taken
just as a physical fact, it is divisible. It is when we take it as
a fact of meaning that we see what we ordinarily have in mind as an
individual. An individual is such because nothing can be subtracted
from it without destroying its distinctive character. It is a unity not
because of physical indivisibility, not because it is a simple unit,
but because, even in complexity, it has in it a _principle of unity_.
The richness of variety in it only contributes to the richness of its
individuality. Bosanquet has made the distinction between the two kinds
of individuals. “Individuality, it has been said, has _prima facie_ two
extremes. An ‘atom’ may claim it, on the ground that it is less than
can be divided; a world may claim it, on the ground that its positive
nature is ruined if anything is added or taken away.”[147] In another
place he says that an individuality is “a world self-complete.”[148]
The principle that individuality means unity and the distinction
between the two kinds of unity are well summed up in the following
quotation: “That individuality always involves some sort of unity
will hardly be denied. That which is in no sense one is in no sense
an individual; and the more truly a thing can be called one, the more
truly can it be called an individual. We must distinguish, however,
between two aspects of unity,--the quantitative aspect or numerical
unity, and the qualitative aspect or inner coherence.”[149] The atom
was an example of numerical individuality; the qualitative individual
would be exemplified in the life of a man. A human being can of course
be rent limb from limb, but so far as bodily life is concerned he
ceases then to be a man; his identity as a human individual has been
destroyed.
Now a country is an individual by virtue of being a qualitative unity.
It is a unity in difference. Aristotle says: “A state is not made up
only of so many men, but of different kinds of men; for similars do
not constitute a state.”[150] The unity of a country is not a simple
but a complex unity. It is often quite rudimentary, but its essentials
are there, if there is any country at all. And those essentials may
be developed. They at least exist as the material for an ideal unity.
National individuality, to be sure, is often an ideal rather than a
present fact. But the patriot holds just this unity of his country
in ideal, and strives towards it. His is a will to national unity,
national individuality. There were in the revolutionary period two
movements developing side by side,--the movements towards independence
and unity. Washington was a patriot not only because he sought for
separation from England, but because he consistently counselled _unity_
as among the colonies. Lincoln was a patriot not in the sense that he
stood for the separation of his country from other countries (there was
no call for that), but in that he stood for the preservation of the
unity of the United States. He preserved the Union. The nationalistic
movements of the nineteenth century in Europe were directed in large
part towards unity. The Germans and Italians strove to the end that
all their people might be united. Those movements were struggles for
national unity, and hence struggles for national individuality.
The stimulus of war brings out in supreme degree the demand of the
patriot for national unity. The present war has compelled unity
within each individual nation to an unparalleled extent. The whole
population in each country has had to be organized for the war. The
civil and military populations are not now as distinct as they once
were. “The war is waged not only by the soldier but by the baker, the
manufacturer, the engineer, the farmer, the small investor, the women.
Unless, therefore, the emotions of the entire country can be keyed up
to volunteer pitch and maintained at the point of fighting efficiency,
the war machine loses momentum.”[151] The patriot sees the necessities
of the times, and insists upon absolute unity. It is the form that his
will to national individuality then takes.
The patriot ought, however, to remember that unity does not mean
solidarity, and that a true individual is not one which has to be
maintained by the suppression of all differences. The patriot insists
so strongly upon unity, no doubt, because he believes that to act
as one is the only way in which the national individuality can be
preserved. But he should remember, as some one has remarked, that “a
solid front does not necessitate a solid head.” The unity of patriotism
is one of will, and moreover is one of good will. There cannot be
national unity on any basis that ignores that fact. The honest pacifist
should be treated accordingly. On the other hand, there is no reason
why the pacifist should be made the recipient of peculiar honors or
the object of special solicitude. He has thrown his opinion into the
arena of human affairs, and will have to take his chances. And he in
his turn should remember that the patriot is fighting for priceless
possessions, more valuable than any material possessions, his own
individuality and the individuality of his country. If the pacifist has
a right to insist upon his opinion, he must accord the patriot the same
right to insist upon his. What will take place if the patriot happens
to have a large majority, and deems it most fair to enact a selective
draft law? The pacifist can do no other than insist upon his inmost
convictions. But neither can the patriot. There is inevitably a clash,
and the problem is to be solved not only as a question of right, but
also of expediency. It may easily be most expedient, it usually is so,
for the patriot to grant easy terms to the pacifist. And the latter’s
right to free speech and agitation, as long as he does not actually
break or incite to the breaking of a law, is really indisputable. But
the danger to national individuality may be great. It is conceivable
that an aggressive enemy may be at the very doors. In that case, the
nonconformist will have to become in some sense a martyr. If his
country needs him, he ought either to serve or pay the penalty. He
might have to suffer imprisonment. Or he might find it wisest and most
effective to martyr his convictions to the extent of performing some
patriotic service, even to bearing arms. The fact that the majority
differs from him might well be an indication that he is wrong, and that
he should revise his opinions or at least not insist upon them too
strongly; and moreover, if one martyrs his convictions to the extent of
helping win the war, he may expect then to get a more ready hearing
for his opinions. One is always listened to more respectfully when he
has identified himself with the group than when he has cut himself off
from it. Conformity for the present might prove the best method of
making his ideals effective in the long run. It is often easier to work
from the inside than from the outside. The chick within the shell is in
the very best position in the world for breaking through it.
But the essential point is that patriotism insists on unity within the
nation. There is no nation engaged in the war which is not insisting
upon the utmost unity of action and even of thought. And this rests
back upon the unity that had already really been developed. If each
country had not developed and marshaled its resources to such an
extent in peace time, they could not be so mobilized in war time, and
indeed there would be no need for it; the enemy would not be bringing
such resources to bear. It is just the very complexity and unity in
complexity in modern nations that makes war so drastic, and makes it so
necessary that neither side should neglect the bringing of any of its
resources to bear upon the waging of the war. The will to unity, a form
of the will to individuality, is quite characteristic of patriotism.
A characteristic of individuality in human beings and their
institutions is that an individual is self-directing; its destiny
is worked out from within. The following quotation sums up what is
meant: “We pass on to the third factor in individuality. We have
spoken of it as completeness or self-sufficiency; but in its higher
degrees it may also be called self-direction. That some measure of
independence is essential to our notion of individuality will hardly
be questioned.”[152] The phrase “have some individuality” means, in
part at least, that one make his actions the expression of his own true
self. It means to think and act for oneself. If one does not do that,
we say that he is not a real individual. If one is not self-directing,
and is subject to the will of another, his individuality is, in so far,
taken from him, and he becomes a part of the individuality of that
other. If he is integrated in the other’s will, he really in a true
sense ceases to be even unique. Fite says: “As a spiritual individual
I am found in every action that expresses my meaning, whether it be
that of my hand, my typewriter, my servant, or my political party; and
any object that refuses to express my meaning, though it be a member
of my own body, is so far not truly myself.”[153] It follows that one
has to be free and independent to be an individual. And this is the
reason that freedom is so precious; not because the free man will
live in better material circumstances, but because he wants to be an
individual. He wants to be himself, and have his chance of working out
his life in his own way.
And patriotism involves just this demand for liberty. The patriot
wants his country to be free. It must, to satisfy him, be not only a
recognizable separate unit as among the peoples of the world, but must
run its own affairs. He wants it to be self-directing and autonomous.
He cannot bear to have his country used as a thing, or a mere piece of
mechanism at the mercy of another’s will. Any one who is patriotic in
China will not be satisfied with a situation where any foreign power
has concessions over parts of his country’s soil. Weak governments
frequently find it necessary to guard their neutrality, and they do it
jealously because the patriotic spirit will not permit them to allow
others to put them in subjection as a means to the furtherance of alien
designs. Belgium is an instance. Belgium does not want to be a roadway
or the battlefield of Europe. She does not want to be a pawn in a game.
She wants her territory to be the expression of her own free life. To
stand for her neutrality is to stand for her sovereignty, and to assert
herself. Belgium might utterly perish, but in doing so, she would
have asserted herself, and she would rather die in that magnificent
self-assertion than to be the tool of another. It is not often that a
supposedly sovereign power will, like Luxemburg, allow its neutrality
to be disregarded without a struggle. President Wilson understood the
sensitiveness of patriots when he insisted that no foreign troops
should be landed in Russia without her consent. Patriotism is often
thought of altogether as the fight for freedom. The patriot insists
upon the freedom, the autonomy, the sovereignty of his country; the
will to self-direction is one of the moving forces of patriotism.
To be a true individual is to have some significance of one’s own.
Individuality comes to mean marked individuality. It stands for
the opposite of the quality of being common. The phrase “have some
individuality” often means to have something for which one stands, and
something that is really significant in the world. It means that one’s
activities should be the expression of a life plan which is his, and
which has real value. This characteristic takes a step beyond those of
mere separateness and independence. When we say of one that he has no
individuality, we do not mean that he is not numerically separate from
other men, but, in part at least, that he has no _life plan_ which is
specially his own. He has no significance. The man who is an individual
is one who has a specific character. And if he prides himself upon
being an individual he wants to “be somebody.” He has “self-respect.”
He regards himself as significant. He wants not only to count as one;
he wants to _count_.
And, again, this is a characteristic of patriotism. Patriotism is a
will to be nationally significant. It is national pride. It is
national ambition, a will to self-respect and the respect of others, a
will to national standing, greatness, distinction, importance, power.
The existence of this will to be significant is why nations are so
sensitive on points of honor and prestige. Their national significance
is lowered if they allow, let us say, a public insult to go unavenged.
It is a reason why nations cannot back down in a war when it once gets
started, and why they can all be for peace after the war, but not while
it is being waged. National significance, as national significance
now goes, will not permit them to do other than win the war. This
is why states like to regard themselves as “powers,” for it is as a
“power” that a nation finds itself significant in world politics. It
is why countries fight for their “civilization.” The predominance of
their civilization means the fulfillment of their desire for national
significance. It is why the knowledge of the history and literature of
one’s country is likely to produce patriotism; such knowledge creates
both a conviction of the country’s significance and the desire to
realize it further.
The grounds upon which a country asserts its significance is an
important matter. As long as military prowess and possession of much
territory are esteemed to be things of great importance, the nations
will strive to be significant by being distinguished for those things.
If the ideals of mankind can be more largely turned to constructive
activities, the nations will strive to be significant along those
lines. There are patriots whose ideals are of the latter type. They
seek the internal development of their country as a means of making
it more worth while and hence more significant. The significance
that they seek is not merely that which glories in the admiration
and perhaps envy of the world; it is not a significance adjudged by
a jury of mankind, but one that they themselves find in making their
country approximate an ideal. Patriotism is the will to be nationally
significant; another main characteristic of the will to individuality
is what is working in important manifestations of patriotism.
An individual, at least a finite individual, is one of a community.
And its individuality, therefore, rests upon a “broad basis of
likeness.”[154] The conscious individual, for instance, does not
strive to make his individuality consist in absolute difference. He
wants to be different only within certain limits. He does not want
to be “outlandish.” He wants in certain broad ways to be like his
fellows. He would, if it were called to his attention, agree that his
individuality rested in great measure upon membership in his community.
It is impossible for one to avoid seeing the fact that he is one in
a world with others. The human individual is a social animal.[155]
And this fact is formulative of his very individuality. Fite says,
“Not only does ... intercourse with others broaden the range of your
self-consciousness; it also furnishes the basis of contrast through
which you become aware of yourself, and define yourself, and are
enabled to assert yourself as a distinct and unique individual.”[156]
Two points are involved in what Fite says. First, we become
self-conscious in contrast with others; we know ourselves in that way.
Second, our own individuality becomes richer because others exist.
What they have become broadens one’s own vision of the range of human
possibilities by so much the more; and that broader vision enriches
and enlarges one’s own life. One will, then, find his life expanded
by the multiplication of his social relations. “If our argument has
shown anything, it has shown that through the extension of his social
relations, the individual becomes, not less, but more of an individual,
and acquires a greater individual freedom.”[157] The high integration
of society is not necessarily inimical to the development of the
individual. The fact is that as society has been builded into larger
wholes, the individual has also become more and more significant. Royce
says, “... our time shows us that _individualism and collectivism are
tendencies, each of which, as our social order grows, intensifies
the other_.”[158] And Royce draws this conclusion: “No individual
human self can be saved except through the ceasing to be a _mere_
individual.”[159]
The existence of others has important consequences for one’s practical
attitude toward life. When one becomes aware of such existence he
can no longer act as if it were not. “When I have perceived even a
chair standing in my way I can no longer proceed as if it were not
there.”[160] And one’s conduct will usually be more radically changed
when it is human individuals that are in the way. The same knowledge
which shows one himself shows him also other human beings who are just
as real and important as himself, and upon the basis of that knowledge
he can logically and ethically find no good reason for treating them
merely as means for the furtherance of his own interests. He cannot
simply walk over them as if they were not there. But if one is even
wise, he will adopt no such ruthless plan of life. He will realize
that consideration for others is best for himself. He will not only
have less trouble, but he will also find his individuality enriched
by his intercourse with other free beings who have their own meaning.
One cannot be a positive reality unless his neighbors are also. And if
these things are true, it means that the interests of the individuals
of a community may be harmonized. When each one understands his own
true nature, he at the same time realizes that his own good is best
found in harmony with the others of his community. Individualism,
rightly interpreted, attains the results desired by those who place
the emphasis upon collectivism. Howison says: “The very quality of
personality is, that a person is a being who recognizes others as
having a reality as unquestionable as his own, and who thus sees
himself as a member of a moral republic, standing to other persons in
an immutable relationship of reciprocal duties and rights, himself
endowed with dignity, and acknowledging the dignity of all the
rest.”[161] This is an ideal of individuality as it appears in persons.
The enlightened individual is really concerned about finding his proper
place in his world.
Does patriotism recognize that individuality involves membership in a
community? Does the patriot actually wish to realize the individuality
of his country in that way? The answer is that he often does. There
are patriots who have their hearts in the desire that their country
be a good neighbor. This desire is, of course, not always present in
the patriotic state of mind. But neither are the other characteristics
of individuality always invariably present. Some of them are always
present, and together they make up the will to individuality which is
the essence of patriotism. It must be admitted that only too often
does the patriot think of the individuality of his country as realized
apart from or at the expense of others. The more generous notion of
patriotism is still as much a problem as a fact. And yet, in times of
peace at least, the patriot sees the good of countries other than his
own. It is a defensible proposition that even the common man is capable
of and actually does possess such vision. Certainly there are examples
of illustrious patriots in whom it is found. The following has been
penned concerning Professor Royce: “... his ethical idealism is best
understood as an interpretation of the spirit of modern civilization
as it had found expression in his native land. Not that there was
anything of the Chauvinist in Royce. If there were aught of value in
our social and political ideals it was due to the fact that they rested
on principles that cross the boundaries between nations, and might
equally serve as the basis of that community of nations to which he
hopefully looked forward.”[162] But one can also place in evidence
the very words of one of the greatest patriots of all time, Joseph
Mazzini. Mazzini was devoted to the ideal of serving humanity. He wrote
to the laboring people of his country: “Your first duties--first as
regards importance--are, as I have already told you, towards Humanity.
You are _men_ before you are either citizens or fathers.”[163] But he
was also an ardent patriot. He was devoted to Italy, to her freedom,
unity, and significance. And he thought that Italians, like all other
men, could serve humanity effectively only by being in association.
“This means [of effective association],” he says, “was provided for
you by God when he gave you a country; when, as a wise overseer of
labor distributes the various branches of employment according to the
different capacities of the workman, he divided Humanity into distinct
groups or nuclei upon the face of the earth, thus creating the germ
of Nationalities.”[164] The duty of a nation was to be the servant of
humanity, but that was also its glory and its right to be. Patriotism
and internationalism were complementary. “In labouring for our own
country on the right principle, we labour for Humanity. Our country
is the fulcrum of the lever we have to wield for the common good.
If we abandon that fulcrum, we run the risk of rendering ourselves
useless not only to humanity, but to our country itself. Before men can
_associate_ with the nations of which humanity is composed, they must
have a National existence. There is no true association except among
equals. It is only through our country that we can have a recognized
_collective_ existence.”[165] This, then, patriotism quite often
actually is. And once more, in its positive recognition of the country
as truly one of a community, patriotism turns out to be the working of
the will to national individuality. This last phase is an altruistic
form of the will.
The concept of the will to national individuality, derived from the
popular definition of patriotism as the love of country and wrought
out in the light of the data which clusters about that popular idea,
proves to be a seminal principle. If one follows out the various forms
of the will, he comes to the main forms of patriotism. He could, by a
knowledge of the characteristics of the will to individuality, foretell
in general what the manifestations of patriotism would be found to be.