Recently, a man was shot to death by law enforcement agents after attempting to breach a Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) field office. This young man’s senseless death struck a nerve within me and I am not certain why. Perhaps it was the fact that he was close to my own son’s age. I wondered if he left behind any young children. I thought about the sense of shock and pain his parents must have experienced after learning that they would have to bury their son.
Subsequent reports regarding this young man shed some light on what had motivated him to attack the FBI field office. Allegedly, he had heard the report that one of the former president’s homes had been “raided” by the FBI and apparently, he felt compelled to defend his leader. Therefore, he proceeded on this doomed mission while issuing a call to arms to like-minded Americans.
From a distance, many will likely think that this man was simply mentally unstable and his overreaction to the FBI’s search of the former president’s home was merely an aberration. But I maintain that given the countervailing reality that the enemy of our souls has managed to convince many Americans to adopt, the young man was likely deeply patriotic but grossly misinformed.
To appreciate my point, try to imagine that one day you awakened to the news that your beloved former president’s home had been raided by the FBI, and this report is brought to you by your favorite and trusted news outlets. Despite its claim that the former president had illegally retained classified documents, according to your news sources, the FBI had no legitimate reason for searching the former president’s home. The former president has been adamant that he no longer had any relevant documents when the FBI raided his home. And if he did have some documents, they were no longer classified because he had issued a standing order that documents become declassified as he move them to his home. In addition, over the past year and a half, these same news outlets have dwelled on the fact that your former president would still be president had the 2020 presidential election not been stolen from him. You no longer watch mainstream media because many leaders of your party, including the former speaker of the United States House of Representatives, advised you and all of his followers to stop watching mainstream news outlets. Finally, many current leaders of your political party have excoriated the FBI for its actions against the former president. Some have even recommended defunding it.
The point is that it is one’s perception of reality, and not reality itself that often informs his/her thoughts and actions. Therefore, to the degree that the enemy of our souls can shape one’s perception, he can influence one’s conduct. In the case of the young man mentioned above, the enemy used his sense of patriotism to ultimately orchestrate his downfall. A dictionary definition of patriot is “a person who vigorously supports his/her country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors”. In my view Pat Tillman, a young man who walked away from a promising career in the National Football League (NFL) to enlist in the United States Army in response to the 9/11 attacks on our country, was a prime example of a patriot. He ultimately gave his life in defense of his country. But might the same be said by about the young man mentioned above? Did he not think he was defending his country while attempting to breach the FBI field office? Based on the reported social media comments attributed to him, I suspect he likely knew things would not end well for him; yet he proceeded with his ill-fated mission anyway.
It was reported that a quote taken from a social media account with the young man’s name on it said, “when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty”. In isolation, one might think this quote was uttered by a genuine patriot who was righteously indignant by the abuses perpetrated against his country by its enemy. But in this young man’s worldview, the very institutions that have helped to enable and maintain America’s greatness had become its enemy. Therefore, attacking the FBI was tantamount to attacking the enemy.
Despite their ostensible love for their country, Pat Tillman is generally remembered as a patriotic hero while the young man who was killed by law enforcement personnel will likely be remembered as an anti-American criminal. You see, the difference in these two Americans’ patriotism is that Pat Tillman’s was based on verifiable facts while the other young man’s patriotism was based on an alternate reality that portrayed the former president as a noble representative of the people who has been victimized by the “deep state” for the past six years or so. The fundamental difference in how these two men will likely be treated in history is determined by the respective objects of their patriotism. Pat Tillman’s decision to walk away from the celebrity of the NFL was driven by his desire to defend America from a terrorist organization that had attacked us on American soil. On the other hand, his counterpart whose actions were predicated on an alternate reality, had somehow conflated his need to defend our country with a need to defend an ulteriorly motivated selfish man who has very little respect for the laws of this country. And when patriotism is based on blind loyalty to an individual, it is not patriotism at all. You see, both men made the ultimate sacrifice. But the essence of real patriotism is not rooted in the sacrifice: but rather, it is grounded in the cause for which the sacrifice is made.