Patriotism:
The Most Useful Ideal
Geltveltian Patriotism is a vestige of earlier ages when the WarTrolls would ride off on their mammoths to do battle with other WarTrolls over the control of patches of dirt. The different groups who fought against each other identified themselves by the color of their flags. Their were many such groups at one time, but as the most powerful conquered less powerful, three groups emerged: the Reds, the Greens, and the Blues. They were all carefully taught to hate each other. Modern Troll society, based as it is on swapink rather than conquest, tends to regard these divisions as primitive and a bit silly, but they do not say so publicly because they are so useful in maintaining public order. So the Reds are encouraged to hate the Greens and Blues, the Blues to despise the Reds and Greens, and so on. Each group is told that the other groups are inveterate warmongers, and to counter this they must wage an eternal War on Warfare. Great sums of glitter gelt are expended in this War on Warfare, some of which goes to spectacular displays of destruction and slaughter for the amusement of the Elves, but most of which goes into the pockets of the Trolls.
A wonderful balance is thus achieved. When the Elves start agitating for some subversive program such as universal free education or health care for all, or guaranteed employment, they are told that these would be terrible violations of Freedom and Individuality, but when the Troll authorities need to spy on them, or conscript them for the War on Warfare, or evict them from their homes because some worthy Trolls have found a more profitable use for the land, they are told that it is their Patriotic duty to meekly comply. When public order requires that they be free, they are compelled to be free, and when it requires that they follow orders, they voluntarily do so, urged by their own Patriotism.
