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Anime and Manga
"It is not a soldier's duty to make policy. I follow my orders."
— Colonel Shikishima, AKIRA
Comic Books
"The United States doesn't need me to dictate, or worse, deprive her people of that most precious gift. The freedom of choice. Even when I knew in my heart that choice was wrong."
Film — Live-Action
"I am loyal to that throne, no matter who sits on it."
— Okoye, Black Panther (2018)
American general: You mean your convictions, or your country's convictions?
General Kuribayashi: Are they not the same?
American general: Spoken like a true soldier.
General Kuribayashi: Are they not the same?
American general: Spoken like a true soldier.
Hale: I thought for a while, the CIA had... arranged the suitcases. Like King Awad's suicide.
Philindros: Mr. Hale, we only try to do what's right.
Hale: Even when it's wrong?
Philindros: If it's good for America, it can't be wrong. Right?
Philindros: Mr. Hale, we only try to do what's right.
Hale: Even when it's wrong?
Philindros: If it's good for America, it can't be wrong. Right?
Roaché: I am a patriot. I love my country. You understand that?
Tatopoulos: Sure.
Roaché: It's my job to protect my country. Sometimes I must even protect it from itself. From mistakes we have made. Mistakes that we don't want the world to know about.
Tatopoulos: The nuclear tests in the Pacific?
Roaché: Yes. This testing done by my country left a terrible mess. We're here to clean it up.
Tatopoulos: Sure.
Roaché: It's my job to protect my country. Sometimes I must even protect it from itself. From mistakes we have made. Mistakes that we don't want the world to know about.
Tatopoulos: The nuclear tests in the Pacific?
Roaché: Yes. This testing done by my country left a terrible mess. We're here to clean it up.
Literature
"Because today I am on state business, and I have no inclination to let private friendship override my public duty."
— Xu Huang, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
In the finer moments of his life he had marked out in his imagination a death for himself, a death that would come to him in service to a monarchy which, in his mind, had the sanctity of a superstition. Rights and wrongs—he had nothing to do with these. Alexander may have ruled wisely or with the hand of a tyrant, for this he had no care. It was not the hour of judgment, but of duty; the yielding up of life that those who came after him and bore his name might yet place a laurel to his memory in sincerity.
"But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile."
— Dr. Stephen Maturin, ''Master and Commander''
Kel Command wasn't why Brezan had become a hawk anyway. Indeed, Kel Command was a great reason for avoiding the Kel ... No: it was that the hexarchate was a terrible place to live, but it would be an even worse one if no one with a conscience consented to serve it.
You couldn't pull the hexarchate apart and exchange it for something better. The fact that the heretics always lost was proof of that. So you had to do the next best thing, the only thing left: serve, and hope that serving honorably made some small difference.
You couldn't pull the hexarchate apart and exchange it for something better. The fact that the heretics always lost was proof of that. So you had to do the next best thing, the only thing left: serve, and hope that serving honorably made some small difference.
— The Machineries of Empire, Revenant Gun
Live-Action TV
"Governments make policy. Soldiers have to accept those policies even when they're completely contradictory. It's the very definition of your job. A solider accepts that the face of 'truth' changes on a daily basis."
— Interrogator, Babylon 5 ("Intersections in Real Time")
Tabletop Games
Citizens fear that the unknown will be worse than the known: a foreign philosophy, a strange religion, or perhaps society breaking down to anarchy...and people may be loyal to the idea, or to the ideals, of a nation or empire, even when the reality is tarnished.
— GURPS Space, sidebar: "Why People Support Rotten Empires"
Video Games
Display obedience
While never stepping out of line
And blindly swear allegiance
Let your country control your mind
(Let your country control your soul)
While never stepping out of line
And blindly swear allegiance
Let your country control your mind
(Let your country control your soul)
— "Collective Consciousness", theme song of Senator Armstrong, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
"Were my heart my master, I would do exactly as you say. But what sort of knight abandons his kingdom-his king!-now, when they need him the most?"
— Camus, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Soldier: But, Lord Captain! The Mysidians offered no resistance! And still we cut them down!
Cecil: Listen to me. We did no more than what our kingdom's peace and prosperity required us to do. The Mysidians knew too much of the Crystal and its secrets. His Majesty deemed it so. We are the Red Wings of Baron! It is not our place to question the orders of our king.
Cecil: Listen to me. We did no more than what our kingdom's peace and prosperity required us to do. The Mysidians knew too much of the Crystal and its secrets. His Majesty deemed it so. We are the Red Wings of Baron! It is not our place to question the orders of our king.
— Final Fantasy IV DS
"I'm not some blind, flag-saluting, do-as-they-will NCR lover. They're like family, but let me tell ya what family means. You ever had a brother? Some dumbass younger brother, say, who knocked up the pastor's daughter, can't hold down a job and his home-away is a jail cell? That is NCR. Their compass is spinning. All the time."
— Cass, Fallout: New Vegas
"Unlike Sokolov, the thought of defecting has never once crossed my mind. I love my country. I love this land. I cannot even imagine living anywhere else. I wish to remain a hero of the great motherland."
— Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
"What I remember about the rise of the Empire is... is how quiet it was. During the waning hours of the Clone Wars, the 501st Legion was discreetly transferred back to Coruscant. It was a silent trip. We all knew what was about to happen, what we were about to do. Did we have any doubts? Any private traitorous thoughts? Perhaps, but no one said a word. Not on the flight to Coruscant, not when Order 66 came down, and not when we marched into the Jedi Temple. Not a word."
— Clone narrator, Star Wars: Battlefront II
Web Original
Truly this is America's Team: where the consumer gives and gives to the corporation and is given nothing but false promises based on a once proud past, and admonished for ever questioning the machine.
— Drew Magary
, "Why Your Team Sucks 2014: Dallas Cowboys"
, "Why Your Team Sucks 2014: Dallas Cowboys"Chot Tzui: You, no doubt, being an S3 node, have some insights into the nature of this conflict that I lack. Tell me then, are the ontological differences between our [masters] the true heart of this conflict, or is there something greater at stake? Is it right that I and the forces under my muster continue to oppose Metasoft or should we pursue another course?
Metasoft ISO: Whether or not there are greater things at stake is not something I have authorization to reveal. It is enough that you oppose Metasoft.
Metasoft ISO: Whether or not there are greater things at stake is not something I have authorization to reveal. It is enough that you oppose Metasoft.
Western Animation
"No, dude. America may have some problems, but it's our home, our team. And if you don't want to root for your team, then you should get the hell out of the stadium."
— Stan, South Park, "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants"
Lilandra: You are a warrior of honor! Why do you serve a madman like my brother?
Gladiator: Princess, I serve the imperial throne of the Shi'Ar. And D'Ken sits on that throne.
Gladiator: Princess, I serve the imperial throne of the Shi'Ar. And D'Ken sits on that throne.
Real Life
As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me...They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are "only doing their duty", as the saying goes. Most of them would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil.
— George Orwell, The Lion & the Unicorn
"Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but still our country, right or wrong."
— Stephen Decatur
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."
— Carl Schurz
"My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."
But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.
— Patrick O'Brian
Enoch Powell: No, we do not fight for values. I would fight for this country even if it had a Communist government.
Margaret Thatcher: Nonsense, Enoch. If I send British troops abroad, it will be to defend our values.
Enoch Powell: No, Prime Minister, values exist in a transcendental realm, beyond space and time. They can neither be fought for, nor destroyed.
Margaret Thatcher: Nonsense, Enoch. If I send British troops abroad, it will be to defend our values.
Enoch Powell: No, Prime Minister, values exist in a transcendental realm, beyond space and time. They can neither be fought for, nor destroyed.
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president."
"Chernobyl was a failure of humans whose loyalty to (or fear of) a broken governing party overruled their sense of decency and rationality. You're the old man with the cane. You just worship a different man's portrait."
— Craig Mazin, responding to conservatives who wrongly praised Chernobyl as an indictment of leftist politics.
