‘unpatriotic’? And to repudiate what any one chooses to call ‘American’ is to be unpatriotic. If there is any document of Americanism, it is the Declaration of Independence. Those who have Americanism especially in charge have repudiated the doctrine that ‘governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,’ because it stood in the way of what they wanted to do. They denounce those who cling to the doctrine as un-American. Then we see what Americanism and patriotism are. They are the duty laid upon us all to applaud, follow, and obey whatever a ruling clique of newspapers and politicians chooses to say or wants to do. ‘England’ has always been, amongst us, a kind of counter token, or token of things to be resisted and repudiated. The ‘symbols’ or ‘tokens’ always have this utility for suggestion. They carry a coercion with them and overwhelm people who are not trained to verify assertions and dissect fallacies.”[47] When one’s attention is called to these things, it cannot help but impose upon him the obligation of examining the bases and nature of his own patriotic enthusiasm. The deliberate habituation of patriotism has a bearing upon the problem of peace. Knowledge of other peoples will not bring harmony and mutual goodwill unless it is sympathetic knowledge, and, if it is to be sympathetic, our mental prepossessions must be shaped so as to open our minds to a just appreciation of unwelcome facts and ways at variance with our own. And to accomplish this, the teaching of patriotism will have to be directed towards the realizing of the devoutly to be wished consummation. CHAPTER IV THE SPONTANEOUS HABITUATION