Introduction:
In the wake of every crisis—whether it’s 9/11, the Gulf War, or the latest foreign entanglement—millions of Americans rally around the flag, supporting leaders, policies, and institutions that promise “law and order” and national security. Yet, time and again, the same institutions and elites use this emotional reflex to erode liberties, expand government power, and wage wars that benefit a global oligarchy. Why do so many good people, especially those who see themselves as the backbone of the nation, remain loyal to a system that often betrays their trust?
The Stockholm Syndrome Analogy:
Stockholm syndrome, first named after a Swedish bank robbery in 1973, is a psychological phenomenon where hostages begin to identify with, defend, and sometimes even love their captors. The logic is primal: by bonding with those in power, victims hope to ensure their own survival. This is not just about bank robberies—it’s a survival instinct that kicks in any time people feel powerless, threatened, or dependent on authority for protection.
Translating This to Patriotism and Law & Order:
The “law and order” mindset—common among self-identified patriots, conservatives, and mainstream Americans—maps surprisingly well onto the Stockholm dynamic:
- Identification with Power: Citizens taught to see the government, military, police, or even corporate institutions as the “good guys” begin to identify their own wellbeing with the actions of these authorities.
- Defending the Captors: When those institutions overreach—spying, lying, waging unjust wars, or chipping away at freedoms—these citizens often defend the actions reflexively, insisting “they must know best” or “they’re keeping us safe.”
- Emotional Bonding: Propaganda, patriotic rituals, and crises are used to create an emotional bond between the people and their rulers—turning legitimate skepticism into taboo, and dissenters into “enemies.”
Why It’s So Effective:
- Fear and Crisis: The more fear, the tighter the bond. After 9/11, or during any “national emergency,” the call for security drowns out the call for liberty. As Bastiat warned, when plunder (or war) becomes a way of life, society builds a legal and moral system to justify it.
- The Need for Belonging: Humans are tribal. “Team America,” “Back the Blue,” “Support the Troops”—these slogans meet a psychological need to belong to the winning side, and to feel safe under powerful protectors.
- Cognitive Dissonance: It’s psychologically painful to admit you’ve been lied to by your own government, party, or church. So, many choose the easier path—doubling down, defending the system, and attacking anyone who questions it.
- Propaganda & Manufactured Consent: Media, Hollywood, politicians, and even churches reinforce these patterns with “bread and circuses,” patriotic spectacles, and the endless drumbeat of existential threats.
How It Shows Up in Debate:
- Labeling and Dismissing: Critics of war, central banking, or unconstitutional overreach are called “unpatriotic,” “soft,” or “conspiracy theorists.”
- Binary Thinking: “You’re either with us or against us.” Nuance disappears. Questions are seen as attacks. Historical perspective is replaced by team loyalty.
- Emotional Appeals: Stories of fallen soldiers, terrorist threats, or “evil” regimes are used to bypass critical thought and trigger emotional loyalty.
What’s Really at Stake:
- Liberty vs. Security: As Epictetus, Voltaire, and America’s Founders all warned, the more we value security from distant threats, the less real control we have over our own lives. Liberty is lost when we hand over our judgment to “experts” and “protectors.”
- Stage 4 Morality and Beyond: Most people remain in a “law and order” (Stage 4) mode of moral thinking: rules are rules, authority is right, and dissent is dangerous. Stage 5 and 6 moral thinkers (by Kohlberg’s theory) move beyond this—valuing universal principles, constitutional limits, and the courage to challenge authority for the greater good. Stage 4 individuals often take offense at the higher-stage reasoning, not out of malice, but because it feels like a threat to the tribe or the system they’ve come to trust.
Breaking the Spell:
- Recognize the Pattern: The first step is seeing the dynamic for what it is—an emotional, not rational, bond with power. Propaganda works because it feels safe.
- Question with Courage: True patriotism is not blind obedience; it is loyalty to principle, to the Constitution, and to higher truth. This requires courage, because it means risking your place in the tribe.
- History as Guide: Every tyranny—from Nazi Germany to Stalinist Russia to 21st-century America—used the same playbook: crisis, unity, scapegoats, suspension of rights, and loyalty tests. Only those willing to question the “team” narrative can defend liberty for all.
- Seek Higher Morality: As Christ, Paul, the Founders, and modern philosophers taught, the ultimate allegiance is not to any party or state, but to God, truth, and justice.
Conclusion:
Stockholm syndrome is not just a story about hostages in a bank. It’s a warning for free societies: unless we break the emotional bond with our “captors”—the politicians, bankers, media moguls, and institutions that exploit our fears—we become prisoners of a system we were meant to control.
The antidote is simple, but hard: ask better questions, seek higher principles, and refuse to let fear or team loyalty blind us to what is right. Real patriotism demands no less.
