Counter-tribalism

To add to my entire Cultural Tribes section the estimable John O'Sullivan made the following observations in the NY Sun recently, apropos of 9-11 and the GWOT.

We heard more and more from the "counter-tribalists" — those Americans who consider themselves more sophisticated and intellectually detached than simple-minded patriots but who take the side against America as reflexively as a hard hat worker or suburban soccer mom salutes the flag. They are an anthropological curiosity — moved by the same instinctive tribal loyalties as a primitive people with the exception that they are loyal to other tribes. And not just any other tribe but the one that happens to be opposed to the United States.

Counter-tribalism explains many oddities such as those feminists who can't bring themselves to welcome the ousting of the women-hating Taliban in Afghanistan because it was accomplished by George W. Bush. It is the ideology of a large lumpen intelligentsia in schools, the courts, universities, the "netroots" Democratic Party, the establishment media, Hollywood, etc., etc. Its slogan runs: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." And Barbara Kingsolver expressed it perfectly when she wrote: "In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper-shredder."

In a free country like the United States, Kingsolver is entitled to say such things. Shouldn't the rest of us be free to say that this is vicious and unpatriotic drivel and that counter-tribalism is not dissent but hatred of America? And don't we owe the dead that honesty at least?

(HT: Moonbattery)