Patriotism

I am very patriotic.

 

Only for sport lol.

I didn't choose to be born in the UK so I don't get the whole idea of patriotism.

I guess I am just skeptical of it all, like last year with the Queen. I mean she doesn't do much and all the money spent on the Jubilee stuff could have be better spent

 

Like a friend of mine says, patriotism is fine, nationalism is not.

 

Someone once told me that patriotism is, "Thinking your country is the best country simply because you were born there." I imagined punching them in the face for the next couple of days. I have to agree more with the definition of Daniel Tosh. "Patriotism is knowing that your country sucks, but that everywhere else is a thousand times worse". I'm pretty patriotic, and as some author I can't remember once said during the Vietnam War, "This country is always worth fighting for. Even when it's wrong."

 

As an Australian with multiple nationalities (all Anglo/Irish/Scandanavian/Polish), I find the idea of being proud of a country that I have no ancestral links to is ridiculous, but being proud of the aforementioned countries I have visited so few times would be equally ridiculous because I'm not integrated in their societies. Pride in family, in culture, and in your personal achievEments is good, but pride in your national achievements is simply taking credit for what has been done mostly by others, mostly before your time, and has no relevance to you as a person. That being said, I do enjoy a bit of sporting pride and so on, but I think an Australian who supports France or Argentina in the Olympics is as reasonable as one who supports Australia, because either way, you are about as connected to any sporting team as the next, with the exception of your taxes only fund the one (which is an entirely different matter).

 

I'm against the existence of borders acting as barriers, but everyone will always have some sort of cultural identity and as such, there will always be the tendency to draw lines on maps.

 

Of course, & i'd say having a strong cultural identity can be important. But we shouldn't let that be an excuse for racism, or hatred of immigrants because they're 'Taking our land!!'. A cultural identity is at it's core a personal thing, so an attachment to a certain place - to what essentially amounts to lines on a map - can only dilute it. Rather, one needs to accept that we can keep our culture, without getting attached to land, which is where my opposition to patriotism comes from.

 

^that too, or rather we have to stop feeling that the influence of other people can somehow dilute our culture, rather than accepting them and letting them enrich it even further

 

...in which case I completely agree!

 

This. And what FJ Cruiser said.

I'm all fine if everyone ends up in the same nation or whatever, even if there's no actual set country. But either way, I find it better if there were still separate countries, and here's why:

The whole idea of world peace does say that everyone gets along. And if we're all in separate countries, that means everyone gets along despite any differences we have. We're getting closer and closer together on that with the help of Mr. Internet. The only thing that really stands in the way is stereotypes and stigmas. And people assuming things of others based on those stereotypes and stigmas.

Let's say an alien race does end up coming along to our planet. Chances are, they'd be much more impressed with us if we had learned to get along, even though we come from different places with different backgrounds and histories. And they'd be much more inclined to befriend us instead of thinking we're worthless, puny human-alien things who can't even get along with the others of their own planetary species who are simply a waste of matter in spacetime.

So yes, loving your country is an important thing. But also remember to love all the other countries. Yes, that includes North Korea. Does Kim Jung-Un really want to have his nation blown to bits? Probably not.

 

i'm also for 'nationalism' in some senses as well, such as indigenous struggles, & fights against imperialism & so on. my main problem w/ the idea of a nation comes from that there then needs to be a state to uphold this nation, which i'm against since i'm an anarchist.

 

Not at all

 

I am a little bit, but not very much.

 

I could on for hours about why, but this distilled position of gordi's suffices.


The only time I get remotely 'prideful' regarding 'territory' is with sports, and even then I feel someone guilty about it.

 

I find that most people I meet in the UK tend only to act particularly patriotic when they feel threatened, such as times of war or when presenting a united face to the world in sport or an event/disaster. I know people who do love Britain as a place and I feel similarly myself, or people who support our way of life, but otherwise many people just seem to slag off the government most of the time and don't really feel that our country is by any means the "best", also I grant to the Americans you do hear snobbery (toward the Americans and French mostly) but it's mostly just in jest, or ignorance.

Nationality seems to be talked about more recently though. I know that many people in the devolved countries have the feeling of their own national identities of Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, Irish (to those who may think I'm including the Republic of Ireland, I merely mean the many in Northern Ireland who consider themselves Irish) and even Cornish in Cornwall, but many would also say British alongside that if asked their nationality. In England I notice similarly that some say only British, some say only English, and many British and English like myself.

But it seems that the whole Englishness thing has been increasing with the increased devolution of the other countries and the growing possibility of Scotland's seperation. It's hard to feel British when a good chunk of Great Britain may leave the Union, meaning the term "British" would apply to two Sovereign States. Don't get me wrong, I don't oppose it if that's what the majority of the Scottish truly feel they wish to do, only it was a nasty experience when I was a little younger, accidently walking through a large park in Edinburgh during an independance rally, listening to the leader of it slag off the government in London and preach about the power of the Scottish people.

Granted I'm sure much of what he said were good points and there is a lot of Scottish culture/achievement to be proud about, but it was a shock when I was raised to fairly well feel British without really being told I was then finding people I'd consider countrymen to feel so opposed to being alongside the "English", or I suppose it was more-so aimed at London and the UK government but in that tense atmosphere I did kind of feel that if I'd worn an England shirt I may have been mauled in some way =S I know many of the opinions probably were the extreme end and aren't shared by all the Scottish but it made me think none-the-less.

It seems to me there are more Saint George's flags showing up in place of Union Jacks in my area and though I don't think the English have ever really felt threatened like the others whos cultures have been suppressed over the years, there seems to be rising patriotism for England, it's just not as vocal. Also most people I've asked seem to think that England & the rest of the UK would fare the same or better without Scotland and just kind of seem nonchalant to the whole ordeal. They don't particularly want to see Scotland leave but wouldn't really feel very sad if they did.

Then there's Europe which is like the Scotland issue on a bigger scale and whether people feel particularly "European", more in common with the Commonwealth + US + Ireland, blahblahblah, this post is already long.

 

I love the USA. I don't love its current government.