Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Patriotism is having and showing devotion for your country. It means having an attachment to certain
national cultural values and showing critical loyalty to your nation. Some ways to show patriotism
include the following:
Cheer for your country’s team in sports events (World Cup, I’m looking at you).
At the same time, keep in mind that patriotism should not be confused with nationalism. Nationalism is
thinking of your nation as being superior to others, and worthy of dominance. Patriots are proud of their
country, but they understand that other people are also rightly proud of theirs.
Look at the words of a church hymn written in 1934 by the American Lloyd Stone to the melody of
Finlandia by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius:
Compassion – show fellowship with your compatriots who are down on their luck by volunteering
and/or making donations to charities.
Kindness – be friendly.
Self-Discipline – have self-control and cultivate the ability to follow through on what you say you’re
going to do.
Moral Courage – stand up for what you consider to be wrong and defend those who cannot defend
themselves.
Imagine what your country would be like if all its citizens strived to achieve these personal qualities.
Start by adopting them yourself.
There are two ways in which you can develop the characteristics listed above. In my post on How to
Develop Your Character – Benjamin Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues, I explain that at the age of twenty
Benjamin Franklin resolved to always do right and avoid any wrongdoing.
The way in which he planned to achieve this was by creating a list of 13 virtues. He also created a plan
for developing those virtues. I recommend you do something similar.
In addition, in his youth George Washington captured 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior. They were
rules for comporting oneself in a way that would be respectful of others, and of the self. Look through
the rules and come up with your own set of rules of behavior.
A good citizen is active in their community. They participate in the social life of their city or town, and
they look for ways to make their communities a better place to live. That is, if they see a problem in their
community they look for ways to solve it.
Shop locally.
Attend community events – keep your eyes open for events that are happening in your area such as
festivals, community theatre, a gallery opening, and so on.
Join a local club that’s devoted to an activity that interests you, such as running, cycling, or kayaking.
Instead of being cooped up in your home glued to a technological device, get out there and become an
active member of your community. It will make you a better citizen.
Read to educate yourself about the important issues facing your nation. In 1761, John Adams implied
that one of the reasons to emphasize literacy is that it makes people better citizens. Look at the
following quote:
“Every man has in politics as well as religion a right to think and speak and act for himself. I must judge
for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged
by reading?”
If you’re asking yourself what you should read to keep well-informed, here are some suggestions:
Various news sources that cover local, national and global news.
History books.
Political science books such as Rawls’ A Theory of Justice, Plato’s The Republic, and Mill’s On Liberty.
6. Be Vigilant.
A country depends on a well-informed and civic minded population to safeguard the people’s individual
freedoms and political rights. A good citizen remains vigilant in order to ascertain that the government is
doing all of the following:
To do this, a citizen must have the basic skills necessary to be able to assess arguments logically and
critically.
In addition, if a citizen believes that the government is overstepping its bounds or failing in its duties, the
citizen must speak up. In the words of Thomas Jefferson:
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
If you want to be a good citizen, you should be politically active. There are many ways to this. Here are
some ideas:
As a citizen, you have the right to have your voice heard. Exercise that right.
8. Be a Mentor.
Today’s kids are tomorrow’s citizens. Help shape the citizens of the future by mentoring kids. Some
ideas on ways you can mentor kids are the following:
Talk to your own kids about civics and teach them to be good citizens.
Join a school-based mentoring program and tutor kids who aren’t doing well academically.
A while ago I published a post on how to leave a legacy. A great legacy to leave your nation is to play a
part in forming good citizens who will contribute to the nation’s well-being.
9. Be Well-Rounded.
The third point in this blog post indicates that a good citizen has to be productive. That is, they need to
have the knowledge necesary to produce in today’s world — technical skills, legal skills, medical skills,
and so on. However, a good citizen should also be well-rounded.
A well-rounded person is better at creative problem solving and innovation than a person who is not
well-rounded. In addition, they can make contributions not only to a country’s GDP, but also to the
cultural wealth of their nation.
They’re well-read.
They develop not only their mental faculties, but also their emotional, physical, and spiritual faculties.
Your home is a microcosm of your country. If you want to live in a clean, healthy, prosperous, happy
nation, start by creating these circumstances at home.
The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said the following: “To put the world in order, we must first put
the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in
order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.”
Recycle.
Start small- create order at home. Good homes lead to good neighborhoods, which lead to good cities,
which lead to good states, which lead to good countries, which lead to a good world.