Analysis Of The Unpatriotic Academy By Richard Rorty
468 Words2 Pages
From a political perspective, the two schools of thought that govern politics are the left and the right wing party. The left wing can be seen as conservatives who seek equality and diplomacy through long term policies, whereas the right wing can be viewed as liberals who strive for equity by allowing the natural law to rule the economy. In Richard Rorty’s article: “The Unpatriotic Academy”, Rorty argues that by endorsing multiculturalism and failing to adopt a common national identity, the academic left displays no patriotism. Though many good points are made in this article about how the left may be the source of many of a country’s problems, I find the journalist’s argument to be lacking in its foundation as to why the left is so problematic. This…show more content… National pride is not essential for one to be patriotic. Rorty argues that the left wing party is unpatriotic because “It repudiates the idea of a national identity, and the emotion of national pride” (3), but is pride and national identity needed for one to be patriotic? Patriotism is a difficult concept to grasp because it is not well defined, making it easy for it to be misunderstood. It can be understood from this article that when Rorty refers to patriotism, he means that it is one’s devotion to every aspect of their country; adopting a single identity for all to identify with. Patriotism, however, is much more than that. Patriotism is the ability to identify with one’s country and having the desire to defend the country from what it stands for. In part, pride is needed for one to be patriotic; otherwise, if no one