Both concepts specifically appeal to those who are unable to achieve anything on their own—they serve to recruit these people against their own interests and therefore have parallels with and often the same effect as religion.
Both concepts specifically appeal to those who are unable to achieve anything on their own—they serve to recruit these people against their own interests and therefore have parallels with and often the same effect as religion.
Loving-kindness meditation is a practice that encourages you to extend compassion to yourself and then train it like a muscle to be extended further and further out.
Patriotism is love at the national level, but it doesn’t ask you to stop at the border (that’s nationalism).
People should be encouraged to love at the level they can sustain: self > friends & family > community > region > country (patriotism is here) > neighboring countries, etc > world.
If patriotism were practiced in this way, it would be desirable, but that is not the case. The current US administration’s portrayal of its criminal actions as patriotic duty should be example enough. This obviously has nothing to do with what you are saying. And yet, it is the reality.