Klopp plan to reclaim national pride & flag

Jurgen Klopp, Germany's men's national football coach and unofficial minister for common sense, has ventured into territory considerably more treacherous than a high defensive line: patriotism. Germans, he has recently argued, should reclaim national pride from the 'wrong people'. He wants to 'reclaim the flag', so that waving it need not provoke suspicions of extremism in a country with a tricky 'national socialist' past.

Klopp's argument - coming in the backdrop of the far-right Alternative for Germany's (AfD) win in the recent state election in Saxony-Anhalt, making it a contender to form the first far-right government in post-WW2 Germany - is applicable beyond his country. While his statement can be countered by the prevalent fashionable moral relativism of all national pride merely being the same tribal instinct wearing different hats, it isn't. There is healthy patriotism and unhealthy patriotism, and distinguishing them is less difficult than nervous liberals may pretend. Good patriotism says: 'I love my country.' Bad patriotism adds: 'Therefore, you mustn't.' The former regards the flag as an invitation to belong, not proof that somebody else doesn't. The latter, by contrast, requires enemies, turning nationality from affection into certification.

Patriotism is a feeling, not a compliance department. Klopp's 'positive patriotism' - pride compatible with openness, diversity and compassion - is a model that makes taking pride in a nation (or region, city, locality) an attractive celebratory proposition. The larger lesson applicable to such 'belonging' is this: flags, anthems, histories shouldn't be abandoned to those who shout loudest about them. Patriotism is far too important to be left to professional agenda-driven patriots.