The Shifting Sands of Patriotism

Every one of us needs a sense of patriotism

In Britain, the concern over ethnic minority isolation is now largely to do with the fear of terrorism; in France, it is more about conventional crime and civil unrest. But the dilemma - and what politicians are beginning to understand as the source of it - is turning out to be remarkably similar.
The Left in France, just as in Britain, is discovering the importance of patriotism. Ségolène Royal has decreed that her political rallies should end with the playing of the French national anthem rather than the Marxist Internationale. She has even suggested, as Gordon Brown has here, that it would be a good idea if the flag were to be displayed more often and more proudly, as it is in the US.
Cynical old Europe has taken a long time to learn what New World countries, which were founded by immigrants, have always known. A nation cannot absorb large waves of migrants without having some strong sense of national identity of its own to offer them.
Displaced people will quickly become isolated and deranged in a new homeland if that country does not present them with a sense of belonging to something desirable and attractive in its own right, something more than just residence or vague opportunity or even welfare benefits. For those who have come from closely knit homogeneous communities, as most ethnic minority immigrants have, there is something peculiarly empty and soul-less about the anonymity and sophisticated indifference of urban Europe.
When the political fashion explicitly despises pride in one's nationality and culture, there is nothing for the dispossessed to turn to: nothing to compete with their old kinship and loyalties. And so they cling together in alienated, separatist networks prey to whatever anti-social forces wish to exploit their bitterness.
Patriotism has been deeply suspect in Europe ever since the blood-and-soil nationalism of the Fascists brought it into contempt. Indeed the whole rationale of the European Union was based on the downgrading of national pride in favour of a trans-national fellowship.
But the elite class who so despised the notion of love of country had little understanding of its importance for ordinary people. It is not deracinated, cosmopolitan intellectuals - at home anywhere universal ideas are discussed - who need to identify with a homeland or a romantic ideal of a country. Because the Left has always been international for ideological reasons - it was class to which one was supposed to be loyal not nationality ("workers of the world unite") - this has been a particularly hard lesson for Left-wing parties to accept.
The children of immigrant parents in the US can tell you that being American involves believing in "government of the people, by the people and for the people". I assume that French children still learn, even after a generation of Euro-propaganda, that "liberty, equality and fraternity" are the fount of their political tradition.
Britain, not being a revolutionary republic, has more of a problem finding a formula. ("Tolerance and fair play" doesn't cut it, I'm afraid.) But the lesson is being learned: most human beings need to feel that they belong to something larger than themselves.
They do not obey the rules of a society in the abstract interest of the "rule of law". They want to have a positive idea of what it means to be French or British or American in their hearts - and that desire, as Europeans once understood, can be a fine and generous thing.