In the previous essay I indicated that my search for the foundations of ideological commitments, having led me into a sustained, immersive encounter with some of the peaks of occidental poetry and philosophy, brought me to the view that American patriotism properly understood is situated in specific ideas and principles. This may seem strange. Why has patriotism, a phenomenon perhaps more properly associated with inherited ideology, reemerged here at the last stage of this phenomenology? While it’s true that politicians often make rhetorical appeals to patriotism, as though their ideology were simply an expression of patriotism, the actual content of this appeal is often vague. I have something concrete in mind when I use the term here.
