1. Patriotism is not blind obedience to government, nor is it the love of war. It is the love of country. This love can be expressed in many ways. In a free society these different ways will be respected. Let us note how the term "patriotism" is almost universally equated with support for whatever war the particular society is involved in, regardless of the causes leading to the conflict. This reflexive tendency reveals far more about the level of evolutionary development of the human psyche than any amount of well-reasoned rhetoric.

 

2. Attention, soldier! It is always glorious to fight against the enemies of liberty, no matter how this is accomplished. People however, should not die merely for recreational purposes. This includes oneself. Good loving parents haven't raised children to throw their lives away on battlefields for no good reason, even if the parents themselves are fooled by government propaganda. Any individual who begins marching just because some guy starts beating a drum is not using his intelligence. Most wars are effectively nothing more than publicly sponsored athletic competitions for homicidal morons. A thinking individual may or may not decide to fight for individual liberty, but will never fight merely for "our country, right or wrong." If the country is wrong and we love it, let's change it. Nobody but criminals would ever ask anyone to fight for anything other than individual liberty, preferably their own. It is simply the only thing that developed people are willing to kill or die for. The choice to die is a very individual one that should not be influenced by social pressure from a bunch of boot kissing slack-jaws and war mongering bully boys trying to sound brave and patriotic (31).

 

3. In most cases the worst enemies of any country live within the country itself. The enemies are the financial interests who plan and profit from most wars, not the equally brainwashed soldier-children of a foreign land. It is well, before pledging one's life to a cause, to be absolutely sure of the true goals of those who are coordinating the action. This will usually require considerable investigation and can almost never be gleaned from statements coming from any official source, including popular news media. We know of those who have a history of lending money to build up a potentially aggressive nation with the planned intent of financing a war against that same nation later. Anyone who acts in allegiance with this element is effectively a coconspirator in treason against his own country. He renders himself a traitor because he aids and abets the real enemies who reside within the borders, even if that is not his "intent." Those who will not give any of this a second thought are not good soldiers or patriots, but just another variety of parasite seeking free martial arts training, travel, and adventure at the expense of those who work for a living. They are not warriors of light, but slaves of darkness.

 

4. There are many types of warrior. The warrior of light is just and knows that liberty cannot be preserved by allowing power to those who will suspend it in the short term. When this is allowed, the short term has a way of becoming the long term. There can be no military draft in a free society. Besides the encroachment on liberty it is an inefficient way of doing things. Because of individual differences, the abilities of many would be mis-allocated on the battlefield, just as those of an eager and skilled battlefield warrior might be mis-allocated as a journalist or film producer also in the service of truth and liberty.

 

5. There is no justification for the maintenance of a large standing military. When a country is attacked, it can be defended by an expertly trained militia of well armed citizens fighting for their own liberty. These citizens would also not make very easy prey for domestic enemies of liberty in the streets. With this system, the only standing military necessary would be a skeleton crew of officers providing a chain of command to coordinate activity in the event that the country is attacked. If all the time wasted on useless team sports in schools was used for basic martial and survival training, a voluntary citizen militia could be just as effective as any occasion might demand. The place now occupied in adult society by professional team sports could then be replaced naturally by fine gladiatorial contests of various kinds. These need not be to the death as in ancient times. Get boys interested in exciting, but practical, activities and eventually men will follow suit.

 

6. It is perfectly natural to want to participate in history. World liberty however, will result in continuing economic prosperity and the end of war. Ultimately, adventurous young people will be able to journey into outer space as free employees of privately owned companies seeking to develop natural resources on other planets. This will make a splendid substitute for government sponsored wars in the lives of all people.