It is said 'Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.' I disagree - violence is.

[Taverner]

Because in the end, after all patriotic bullshit, after all religious calls to arms, there is the violence that follows.

[mattvermont]

1. pertinent to this post and one previous by kurtnyc

“They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings- steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and then they make you king.”
― Bob Dylan

[saras]

2. You mean there's a difference?

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" - Salvor Hardin said it in Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy.

But I thought that what patriotism was, was violence directed against people who you perceive as *different* and therefore threatening, by their very existence, the purity of your *country*.

I suppose if I could talk to, say, Phil Ochs, that he might have a better definition. But at this point I consider the American flag as polluted a symbol as, say, American Hindus consider the swastika a polluted symbol.