Intoxicated by mad devotion

This uber-hyped event stirs up the sort of intense pride associated with wartime loyalty

Acute patriotism strikes the soccer-mad nations of the world every four years. Then it disappears –  just like Fifa, who begin a private love-fest while balancing the World Cup's books in Zurich.
Having excitedly blown their precious savings to get here, painted faces in national colours, donned carnival clothing, flown flags from cars and porches and generally behaved in ways surprising even to themselves, fans quietly revert to the behavior of normal life.
The process is similar to falling in love, patriotism being a dose of heady madness. The devotion to country we see during footie World Cups doesn't happen in events like Wimbledon. It does occur in Welsh rugby, according to supporter Peter Reynolds, who explains: "Nothing makes me feel more patriotic than when the Wales rugby team runs out on the pitch and Alun-Wyn Jones sings the anthem with tears streaming down his face."
A large chunk of the World Cup feel-good factor comes from this periodic sense of national belonging that seems odd in the global age.  Three French doctors told me recently that they identify much more readily with their professional counterparts in Japan, Ghana or Norway on a day-to-day basis than with other French people per se – except when it comes to football fever a la World Cup. (But notably not in 2010, when France fell out of love with its team).
The uber-hyped event stirs up the sort of intense pride associated more with wartime loyalty than leisure activity. So some of us are wary of patriotism escalatiing in South Africa, partly because we are inclined to muddle it up with the waves of nationalism that have accounted for so much tragic history in this country.
Germany, another nation to have experienced abuse of power through runaway nationalism, has one of the lowest patriotism ratings in the world – except during the World Cup. Footage from Berlin last Sunday after they beat their old enemy England showed black, red and yellow flags flying triumphantly.
As for patriotism that melts away with defeat, the English were so downcast after losing to Germany that one reporter said the atmosphere in their hotels was "as if someone had died". Utter fury subsequently enveloped the UK media and fans, though traditional humour peeked through in the ditty, "You can stick your vuvuzela up your ass," sung to the tune of 10 German Bombers.
Unlike patriotism, which is generally defined as love of homeland, nationalism often focuses on ideologies like communism rather than purely on country. According to George Orwell, "Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception. ..The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side but has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."
Patriotism can be manipulated by politicians to stifle debate and criticism. Scholar J. Peter Euben says most philosophers, including Socrates, believed that "patriotism does not require one to agree with everything that his country does and would actually promote analytical questioning in a quest to make the country the best it can possibly be."
An ethics scholar, Paul Gomberg, has compared patriotism to racism, arguing that a patriotic person recognises more moral obligations to members of the national community than to non-members. Whereas our moral duty ought to apply equally to all humans, patriotism can encourage selective altruism, he says.
With patriotism running at fever pitch in South Africa, it's no wonder there are persistent rumours of xenophobic attacks post-World Cup. Assuming we love and are loyal only to ourselves in the end, the football crowds will be leaving our shores with some of us wanting African migrants and refugees to go, too.  
Last time the country endured an outbreak of bloody xenophobia in 2008, there were murmurs of orchestration but little independent insight. How disillusioning it will be to find that the cruel forces behind such bigoted violence are patriotically waiting for the end of the World Cup to unleash their hatred, as some observers believe.
But when you consider how enthusiastically our citizenry has embraced the world's soccer community, one suspects it's not xenophobia as such that's coming but the raw anger and impatience of some among us towards the really vulnerable ones they feel entitled to trample underfoot in much the same way they've been downtrodden themselves.
You have to wonder where the country's criminals have been during the World Cup. Are they patriotically holding off until the foreign fans go home? Is there a cynical conspiracy between the media and the police to suppress the crime facts? Or have our police actually been doing their work while the international spotlight has been on the country? Let's hope their visibility continues after the visitors leave though, like patriotism, the cops may well vanish with the final whistle.
The dramatic drop in crime is partly the result of special criminal courts set up under Fifa's charter, which have been issuing such swift and draconian sentences in the patriotic/nationalistic interests of a successful World Cup that the thieves seem to have succumbed temporarily to legal defeat. Even the debate about harsh sentencing is patriotically muted at the moment, which is unnerving.
Portuguese photographer Antonio Simoes, victim of armed robbery at the start of the World Cup, was denied permission to identify his attackers and left wondering if police had arrested the guilty or pressed charges arbitrarily. Soccer-loving Royal Bafokeng hotel staff lost their patriotic laughter when handed three years apiece by the special court for stealing underpants from famous visitors as momentoes.
By this time next week, the excitement of the World Cup will be over. We will then be left to fathom the real meaning of patriotism and whether a nation can actually be built on the back of a soccer tournament. Or is what we've been witnessing not about patriotism at all but about the spiritual impoverishment of "market culture run amok", to quote American philosopher Cornel West - with the emphasis on stimulation and titillation rather than intangible non-commercial values like compassion.