Welcome to Citizen.

We're going to do another solo episode today.

And it's based on a topic near and dear to my heart.

Also one that I've written about on my substack recently.

I hope you guys will go check it out.

But it's called I'm not patriotic.

And this is how it goes.

I'm going to start today's show by saying something that might sound strange out of context.

I am not patriotic, at least not in the way that people normally mean it. I'm not patriotic because

America is beautiful, although she is. And I'm not patriotic because our founders were

impressive men, though they were. I'm not patriotic because our founders were impressive men though they were. I'm not

patriotic because we've saved the world twice or because our military is heroic and our flag is

iconic. These things certainly matter and they matter to me. Sure they matter to you but it's not why.

I'm patriotic. I'm patriotic.

I'm patriotic because America is the first nation in human history, built on the realization of natural law.

Because Liberty, as Hobbs recognized, is the natural condition of man.

Because America was the first country to write that truth down in ink and build an entire political order and empire around it.

Everything else, our beauty, our victories, our cultural energy, all of the economic success, it flows downstream

from that simple fact. There's this phrase that we unleashed the power of the individual

in this country. So in this episode, I want to walk you through how I got here personally.

If you've been following the Constitution series, some of this stuff may sound familiar. If you follow the Organon series,

some of that stuff may sound familiar as well. I went from being vaguely patriotic as a kid,

...