What kind of patriotism is it that rests upon the belief in one’s country as the protector of self? Is it patriotism at all? It is not that disinterested love of country that the common man has been formally taught to regard as patriotism. But it is loyalty to country, and whatever answers to that description must be patriotism. It no doubt makes the state a kind of business affair. The primary motive is that of prudence. A man defends his country because he needs it. But some men serve God in that way, and we call it religion. And so this profit-and-loss attachment to country may come under the term patriotism. One reason, therefore, for patriotism is that the country is needful for the protection of life’s values. But, on the other hand, the attachment to country is not patriotism, if the country is looked at _merely_ as means. Patriotism views the country somehow as end. If the real and only motive which is getting expressed is that of self-interest, any show of patriotism is after all mere _camouflage_. The point is that men will actually come to feel real gratitude and love for the country which has protected them. It is a psychological fact that affection attaches itself to what has been useful. In this way and for this reason, affection attaches itself to country, and becomes patriotism. CHAPTER VI THE ONENESS OF COUNTRY AND SELF The patriot identifies himself with his country. He believes that he and his country are one. This belief is the coming to consciousness of the impulse to cling to one’s own. And this conviction becomes another reason for patriotism. Patriotic loyalty of this kind is not a business affair. It will not abandon the country even if the latter should prove unsuccessful in providing protection, but will remain steadfast through all the country’s vicissitudes. One’s country may fail to protect him, but if it is still a recognizable expression of himself, he will love it. The government or state may be faulty, and yet the patriot will still be true. Veblen intimates that one might just as well have foreign officials as home-grown capitalists administer one’s affairs of government.[93] But the patriot is not likely to be persuaded to think Veblen’s way, and the reason is that the home-grown capitalists somehow seem closer than the foreign officials. It is quite true that there are those who refuse to be patriotic because their country does not give them what they believe to be justice. Anarchists are not patriotic. Socialists sometimes are not patriotic. Some among the laboring classes have come to wear their patriotic allegiance but lightly. But the issue for them has ceased to be merely that of getting justice. It has come to the point where the injustice of the industrial situation has gone so far that the dissatisfied classes do not even recognize themselves in the state that is supposed to represent them. And when that feeling of strangeness creeps into a man’s heart, he is no longer likely to be a patriot.