patriotism start?...Most likely, as in many cases, it should begin with a definition of this term, as asserted by the Webster online dictionary. According to it, patriotism is "love for or devotion to one's country." As we can notice, this definition includes two similar, but not identical terms: love and devotion. The second term introduces a higher level of love, because devotion implies an ardent feeling, that is, "a fervent love," as mentioned on the site of American patriotism.

We should thus agree from the very beginning that there are several different levels of love that one can provide (not necessarily towards one's country, but generally speaking) and that somewhere on the way, one's love for one's country is not sufficiently ardent for it to be considered patriotic. We can thus line up several terms that may constitute themselves in a graded scale for patriotism, terms like "love," "ardent love,"...
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