Patriotism is a complex concept almost always presented in simplistic terms, usually erroneous.  

One aspect of course is a willingness to risk your life, health and wealth in protection of what patriotism requires us to defend.  Many of my Citadel classmates have done so.  And anyone involved in the death and destruction of other human beings risks not only his or now her life, health and wealth but also, to the extent they believe in religion, almost any religion, their immortal souls. 

I believe the focus on such willingness or on the observance of national symbols or the taking of oaths or the parroting of official narratives and echoing of a current administration’s policies misses the point.  I believe the point is succinctly, albeit perhaps hypocritically, embodied in the United States’ Declaration of Independence, and in the Preamble to the current Constitution, and in the Bill of Rights and, in other countries, in similar foundational instruments. 

In essence, patriotism is a citizen’s duty not only to protect his or her country, but to hold it to its foundational value’s against all enemies, foreign yes, but more importantly, domestic.  And domestic enemies are not those with whom we disagree, or who criticize our countries’ policies and actions, but those who blindly and unquestionably follow an administration’s policies and actions that contravene foundational values. 

Given the massive peer pressure to conform, especially with respect to what ought to be indefensible policies and actions, that is often more difficult than the willingness to risk life, health and wealth.  Something too many decent and brave people cannot grasp. 

Were it not so, then “We the People” should be pledging our lives and our sacred honor to British King Charles the III as we sing God Save the King.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2026; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.  This article is dedicated to those of my Citadel classmates who I love and respect but who disdain my criticism of the country we all love.

Guillermo (“Bill”) Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet and aspiring empirical philosopher) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia (although he has primarily lived in the United States of America of which he is also a citizen). Until 2017 he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. Previously, he chaired the social studies and foreign language departments at the Eastern Military Academy in Huntington, New York. He is currently the publisher of the Inannite Review available at Substack.com; an intermittent commentator on radio and television; and, an occasional contributor to diverse periodicals and publications. He has academic degrees in political science (BA, The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina), law (JD, St. John’s University, School of Law), international legal studies (LL.M, the Graduate Division of the New York University School of Law) and translation and linguistic studies (GCTS, the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies). However, he is also fascinated by mythology, religion, physics, astronomy and mathematics, especially with matters related to quanta, cosmology and cosmogony. He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at https://guillermocalvo.com/.