ASPIRATIONAL patriotism developed the arguments of the other sub-patriotisms to provide a vision of Britain's future. Adversarial, supranational and proprietorial patriotism provided broad contextual milieux within which civilians could derive understandings of the war's meaning at a relatively impersonal national level, while discussions of duty through civic patriotism, the idea of a concrescent community and sacrifice emphasised the patriotic role and significance of individuals and smaller groups and communities, seeking to make patriotism a personal commitment to a collective cause. These sub-patriotisms were partially refined by spiritual patriotism, which attempted to endow high-minded civilisational values, criticism of adversarial proclivities, and sacrificial rhetoric alike with a sacral sense, enabling arguments that Britain was engaged in a holy war together with concomitant consolation for loss and deprivation. While the first three contextual sub-patriotisms were (largely) outward looking and homogenising in intent, the three core patriotisms of duty presented a more inward-looking, individualised account of British identity. Combined, these concepts provided a dualistic and comprehensive explanatory framework within which divergent civilian interests and imperatives could be accommodated.

Aspirational patriotism drew together these varied strands into an evocation of the post-war world – a world usually presumed to centre upon Britain, with British aspirations becoming civilisational and civilisation requiring a harmonious Britain. Notwithstanding pre-war concerns with ‘imperial overstretch’ and ‘relative decline’, national efficiency or racial degeneracy (briefly addressed below), British national self-regard was still largely a sentiment on which the sun never set, judging by the comments of NWAC propagandists and the reactions of some of their audiences. In combination with the other sub-patriotisms, and extending the broader millenarian tone of parts of the propaganda (traced in chapter 6), aspirational patriotism confirmed that individual ‘welfare [was] bound up with the community’, service to that community thus constituting a form of personal ‘goal-fulfilment’, according to David Miller. In providing epilogues to other sub-patriotisms, aspirational patriotism similarly operated dualistically, offering both civilisational/ideological aspirations for ‘a world without war’ – to be effected by eradicating militarism and establishing international cooperation via a League of Nations – and a more material, pragmatic and individualised set of aspirations.