AI Says...
At a time when social media overflows with flag-waving emojis, chest-beating declarations about the "purity" of a nation, and hollow slogans shouted louder than they are thought through, it is urgent to restore the true dignity of the word patriotism. Because there’s a world of difference between deeply loving one’s country—with its values, its history, its contradictions—and turning it into a fetish of identity, closed off, deaf to others, and sometimes even to itself.
Patriotism is not a shout; it’s a way of life
True patriotism isn’t about belligerent rhetoric or easy slogans. It is about living out the deep values of a nation, embodying them, making them real in the world. It requires embracing history in all its complexity, without idealizing or distorting it. A true patriot doesn’t seek to exclude; they seek to elevate.
Milan Kundera understood this perfectly when he wrote:
"France is not just a country, it is a dream of civilization."
A dream—not a rigid essence. A moral ambition. France envisioned itself as the homeland of human rights, of debate, of enlightened reason. To be a patriot in France is to believe in the power of universality, emancipation, and hospitality to enrich the nation—not to cling to a mythical idea of an “ethnic France,” locked in a fantasized past.
Cheap slogans vs. founding values
Let’s look around us. Everywhere, nationalist slogans try to replace ideals with mere posturing:
USA – "Make America Great Again (MAGA)": a vague nostalgia for a bygone greatness, often used to justify isolation, hostility to others, even outright lies.
Italy – "Forza Italia": emptied of meaning by decades of opportunistic political use, the slogan thinly veils the erosion of an Italian ideal rooted in beauty, harmony, and humanistic culture.
France – "La France aux Français" (“France for the French”): a xenophobic slogan that betrays the universalist tradition of the country of Enlightenment.
UK – "Take back control" (Brexit): instead of regaining enlightened sovereignty, Britain mainly lost a European project of cooperation and openness.
Russia – "Russkiy Mir" (“The Russian World”): a slogan justifying expansionism in the name of a supposed civilizational continuity, in contempt of international law.
Algeria – "One hero, the people": a powerful slogan, but one often emptied of meaning when invoked to silence dissent or mask internal divisions.
Loving your country means loving the best in it
To be a patriot is to live out the highest values of your country—even (especially) when they are betrayed.
France is the legacy of Voltaire, Hugo, Simone Weil. It is the belief that liberty, equality, and fraternity are ideals to build every day, for everyone.
Algeria is fidelity to one’s word, sacred hospitality, and the spirit of sharing. A people who fought for their dignity cannot betray their generosity.
Italy is not just a football team or a political party. It is the grace of gesture, the wealth of culture, the joy of life and craftsmanship.
The United States, despite its contradictions, was founded on a promise: that everyone should have a fair chance, regardless of birth. That’s what must be protected—not a fantasy of white, masculine, regressive greatness.
England is a tradition of parliamentarianism, fair play, political moderation—not paranoid hostility toward foreigners.
Russia is Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, a tormented but vast soul—not an imperialist thirst for revenge.
But why do so many fall for this kind of cheap patriotism? Often, it stems from dysfunctional egos in desperate need of validation, belonging, and a sense of personal worth. The slogan becomes a narcissistic shield, an illusion of strength, a way to silence internal insecurity. In the worst cases, these dynamics are exploited by global leaders with deeply troubling psychological profiles — sociopaths like Donald Trump or psychopaths like Vladimir Putin. Neither of them holds a true ideology; they use nationalism as a tool for personal power. Trump is obsessed with feeding his cult of personality, while Putin seeks to go down in history as the great leader who revived the Soviet empire. But behind the grandstanding, entire populations are sacrificed: poverty, social collapse, young men sent to die in trenches — none of it matters, as long as their monstrous egos are fed. This is not patriotism. It’s the cynical manipulation of the people.
What remains when the slogan goes silent
Cheap patriotism is always on the hunt for an internal enemy: the immigrant, the traitor, the intellectual, the foreigner, the youth who speaks slang, the free woman. It reduces the nation to a tribe.
True patriotism, by contrast, is an active loyalty to principles—not to "purity." It is proven not in fiery speeches, but in action, in listening, in honest criticism, in the demand for justice.
Giving meaning back to the word homeland
The homeland is not a fortress. It is a home, a promise, a path. And the true patriot is the one who looks their country in the eye—with lucidity, tenderness, and high standards—and strives to make it more just, more dignified, more open. Everything else is just cheap patriotism. And nations deserve better than that.