ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Goodon ya Mate ,or is that Cobber? But never you guys or buddy.

TTFN Mr Dave.

Stephen Whiteside wrote:Isn't patriotism supposed to be the last resort of the scoundrel

Samuel Johnson in 1775, said that " patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel "
His other writings and common sense tells us that he never intended to convey the idea that patriotism was an unworthy pursuit. He meant obviously that when scoundrels run out of excuses or ways to justify themselves, they will appeal to patriotism, thinking that it is the unanswerable justification where they can hide their true motives.

These days scoundrels have a much wider choice. Scoundrels can take refuge in supposed mental disorders, memory lapses, discrimination, victimhood, we were just having fun, failure of the system, or just plain..I didn't know ( the variations on I didn't know can be I didn't mean it or I didn't think that was wrong)

Brings to mind this quote.

“Patriotism is the belief your country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.” George Bernard Shaw

Marty

Fair enough, Neville. Sometimes, though, I think patriotism is the FIRST refuge of the scoundrel.

Given that 'Patriotism' has been hijacked and maligned ... begs the question, What would the appropriate term be for "Love of one's Country"?

I think it's OK to love your country, Manfred. It's the next step that worries me...

Perthaps if we loved our own country enough we would tell the Japanese to log their own forests for paper making material instead of getting ours on the cheap.

... the next step??

Chain yourself to the trees I think...

I've seen some pretty ugly expressions of patriotism over the years, Manfred. That's what I'm talking about.