Patriotic and defensive attitudes

The paper concerns an important question of fostering patriotic and defensive attitudes among young people. A new generation growing up in times of wellbeing and among the most advanced technologies, focusing on gadgets such as smartphones, tablets or headphones, lives in a virtual world in which a patriotic and defensive attitude is an abstraction. However, the process of fostering such an attitude is extremely important and it needs to be paid special attention to since it indirectly influences a state’s defence capability and, in turn, its independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty, as well as an individual’s freedom, human rights or national heritage. The purpose of this paper is to emphasise that the fostering of patriotic and defensive attitudes among young people is an important factor influencing a state’s defence capability. A common realization of this fact is especially important since the period of multiannual peace, the possession of the trained and wellequipped professional Armed Forces, the membership in NATO, and the lack of direct military threats might bring about doubtfulness as to the need to have defence education or to foster patriotic and defensive attitudes among young people. The purpose of the paper is to popularise patriotic values and to reinforce the feeling and conviction among young people that the responsibility of every Polish citizen is the allegiance to the Republic of Poland and the care of Poland’s common good. Therefore, every Pole should be aware of that, and he or she should share the responsibility with other Poles for the future of their own country and nation. The paper aims to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that highlymotivated and patriotically aware young people can influence their country’s defence capability by means of their own attitudes and conduct