R: Die for Your Country

In September of 1776, Yale graduate Nathan Hale volunteered to serve as a spy for the Continental Army under Washington’s command. Disguised as a schoolmaster, Hale slipped behind enemy lines and gathered information about British troop movements. As he attempted to return to the Continental camp, he was discovered, captured, and sentenced to death. Faced with the gallows, Hale famously declared, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Hale’s final words, apocryphal or not, raise an intriguing question for us to consider: what does it mean to die for one’s country? And should we be willing to do so?

Those in the affirmative of this week’s resolution will answer “yes” to this question, although I expect there will be some disagreement as to why this is the case. Some might argue that our country is worth the ultimate sacrifice, not for any particular virtue in its founding or its government, but simply because it is ours. One’s country, like his family, is an accident of birth. Why should one be willing to lay down his life for the latter, but not the former? Others in the affirmative may maintain that their country is worth dying for because it is good, though not inherently so—rather, it has earned our love and respect. We must also consider that as long as the world continues, there will be war and unrest, and some nations will seek to conquer others. The day may come when the enemy is at our doorstep. On that day, if we do not consider our country worth defending, why should it endure?

Those in the negative need not be pacifists (although they could be). There are many things worth dying for, they might argue, but one’s country is not among them. If foreign troops invaded our homeland, seeking to destroy us, we would be justified in taking up arms to defend ourselves, or foiling our enemies’ plans through nonviolent means like those of Hale. But even if these actions cost us our very lives, perhaps we would not be dying for our country, but in defense of the people we love who happen to live there. In other words, it is never patriotism which compels us to take the final stand, but love for our neighbor.

It is wise to stop and consider, now and again, what our duties are and to whom we owe them. We have obligations to our families, our communities, our neighbors, and our enemies, and to uncover these obligations and order them properly is the constant task which prudence requires of us. What is patriotism? What are the duties of citizenship? Does allegiance to our nation require that we offer our very lives in its service? What and whom would you die for?