The child of a family friend has recently joined the Air National Guard out of a feeling of patriotism (they have no financial pressure). IMHO, (1) this is a terribly dangerous time to join the military and (2) if this were my child, I would rather they be alive and living in a different country (resulting from invasion) than dead and myself still living in this nation... which got me thinking about the relationship between patriotism and love of offspring.
Patriotism is learned, a product of nurture. Love of offspring is a combination of biology (nature) and society (nurture). The willingness to send or allow your child off to possibly die in war is to value the existence of nation over existence of child. As a reflection of nurtured values over natural values, this is an example of how culture and society have a much stronger impact on individual human outcome than the genes inherited from parents. Nurtured impulses overruled natural impulses.
[For a little context, nature vs nurture often comes up in regards to disease: smoking and tanning are nurtured behaviors that promote cancer. But (natural) genes also play a role in developing cancer because not all smokers and tanners develop cancer nor do all people who avoid those activities escape cancer.]
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