Superpatriotism

Michael Parenti’s Super Patriotism is a serious look at what’s behind the patriotism-driven militarism of the U.S. populace who tend to be conservative, Republican, religiously evangelical white males. This pseudo-patriotism has driven the country into wars it cannot afford, horrendous federal deficits adding to the national debt, a defense budget approaching one trillion dollars (not even counting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which were put on the credit card), a Defense Department whose budget is not even audited with as much as 3-trillion dollars missing and unaccounted for, military bases and interventions all over the world, and a military-industrial complex consuming most of the federal budget while defense contractors have become a fourth branch of government.Parenti, an excellent writer and analyst, has a rather dim view of fundamentalist Christianity and implicates it in this super-patriotism syndrome. According to Parenti, “fundamentalist Christianity is a totalitarian system, just as it was for more than a thousand years after gaining dominance over Rome in the fourth century. Back then, Jesus proselytes proceeded to burn all the many fine pagan libraries that existed and destroyed forever the corpus of pagan works in philosophy, literature, history, astronomy, science, and the arts, ushering in more than a 1,000 oppressive years of ignorant and intolerant theocracy. There is no bloodier compendium of nationalistic carnage and messianic atrocity than the Old Testament.”It is a short step from the cult of the nation (super-patriotism) to the cult of the leader. In the case of Nazi Germany, the world reaped bitter fruit. (Page 80) “Democracy is not about trust; it is about distrust. It is about accountability, exposure, open debate, critical challenge, and popular input and feedback for the citizenry. It is about responsible government.” (Page 81) There is nothing like a war or a major crisis to reduce adult citizens to mindless conformity, ready to play “follow the leader” out of a perceived need for national unity.”Parenti tells us that the U.S. really didn’t have to attack Iraq in 1991 because the Iraqis were offering to withdraw, while calling for a Middle East peace conference to settle disputes – an offer that Washington ignored. (Page 95) He then goes on to expose the lies that the Bush II Administration and big media promoted in order to justify an invasion of Iraq in 2003. The gullible masses fell in line and supported the invasions without asking questions or scarcely flinching. There were three false accusations: (1) Iraq was linked to Osama bin Laden and Al Queda (2) weapons of mass destruction had been found (3) world opinion favored the U.S. invasion of Iraq.“Plutocrats tell us not to expect government handouts, while they and their giant firms annually pocket hundreds of billions of government loan guarantees, bailouts, risk capital, equity capital, export subsidies, and lucrative government contracts. They also enjoy tax credits and tax write-offs while often being tax evaders.” Parenti argues that it is not patriotic to engage in war profiteering. According to Parenti, if patriotism means supporting our troops, no one is more lacking in patriotism that the ruling plutocracy.The marriage of militarism to patriotism makes it difficult to criticize the enormously bloated military budgets yearly allocated by the U.S. Congress. This book is an unconventional look at a form of pseudo-patriotism that is fast turning the U.S. into a bankrupt empire. The masses remain unquestioning in their equation of militarism with patriotism. It is a form of conformism that relegates all military spending and adventurism to the realm of religion and sacrosanctity. Parenti has a fresh, iconoclastic view on the subject. His writing is phenomenal.

Very much a book of its time, Parenti does a great job of both conveying the atmosphere of its moment with the heat of the iraq war and the strange environment of US national's blood rage and fever-pitch in the freshly post-9/11 world. He uses common sense approaches in plain language; the book is a short-ish and very accessible read. If you are considering getting to get your hands on a copy, I'd recommend getting this book or checking it out from a library.

Politics is always a curtain in front of corruption. Those who call it like it is are in danger of isolation and defamation. Too many people are getting rich at the expense of others getting hurt and this book is an eye opener for those who are tired of it.

As described, nice

A succinct, persuasive and penetrating lifting of the curtain on who rules for who's benefit and how. If it were required reading in every high school history class, across the planet, we'd probably live in a different world.

I was forced to read this book as part of a poli sci course. I appreciate Parenti's passion; however, when your facts are blatantly inaccurate, it's difficult to take your tirade seriously. The two examples which stand out to me are as follows: He refers to Halliburton as a big Texas oil company. Uh, wrong! Halliburton is based in Oklahoma. It makes it easier for him to make this company a villain when he paints it with the broad brush of big Texas oil so why damage this image with accuracy. If he can't even get the bio of the company correct, how can one trust the remainder of his "information". He also chose to take a shot at the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team. His assessment of the participants on both sides and their respective abilities resides somewhere between fantasy and complete fabrication. Mr Parenti, I realize you're trying to sell your agenda, and the system you degrade so thoroughly allows you the right to do so. Sadly, younger people might be exposed to your drivel, and don't know any better, might actually believe it. Fortunately, I have the life experience, not to mention the personal knowledge of the above described inaccuracies, to see through the "message" that is being presented. If you like fiction, this book is for you. If you want a legitimate perspective, find an author who has the integrity to base their argument on facts, and perhaps the truth.

Superpatriotism is a brief summation of thoughts and ideas that are not exclusive to Michael Parenti. He is effective in presenting the idea that the people of the USA should, perhaps, wake up and take a look at the country and think clearly about things.Superpatriots are, in Parenti's estimate, those who stand, often blindly, in defence of anything done under American auspices, and those who back the president regardless of rational argument. Superpatriots are not 'bad' people--rather, Parenti illustrates that it is a dangerous, arrogant tendency, and one that does not benefit the citizenry.While many people want to believe that the realm of accepted debate in this country is 'serious', there are some who rightly point out that the 'serious' debate about American power and influence is anything but, and that defenders of the faith are successful not in enlightening people, but in indoctrinating them, narrowing the spectrum of acceptable thought, and neutralizing any dissenting forces.There are some who may read this book and think Parenti is a 'Communist', say, throwing around terms that are divorced from reality but are successful in connoting effective imagery (Communist = USSR = bad), but this is hardly serious at all, and is an example of the extent people will go to avoid thought.The book is short, but as a summation of some of the ideas of dissent that are finding a larger and larger audience in America today, it is valuable.

It is a real eye opener, and fun to read, unless you are a super patriot :()