What is patriotism?

[tomdemaine]

How do you define it? Is it positive or negative? I think 'my country right or wrong' is one of the dumbest things someone can say but feel free to pursuade me I'm wrong. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


CHICAGO - When it comes to national pride, Americans are No. 1, according to a survey of 34 countries' patriotism. Venezuela came in a close second in the survey, released Tuesday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

USA #1!!!

[KeysrSoze]

Germany and Japan were probably in a close race for number 1 around 1936, but that didn't turn out to be a very good thing.

[hmkpoker]

Right on the mark, partiotism is [censored] STUPID.

How/why Americans think this is the greatest country in the world (at WHAT?!?!) boggles my mind. Education is dumb (although I'm not convinced it's that much better elsewhere), health care is expensive, drug laws are brutal, women have to be 18, drinkers have to be 21, we're more in debt than any country in the world, our citizens' average net worth is negative (technically, doesn't that make us the poorest country in the world?) and our leader's a [censored] [censored]. This is the only country in the world where people who have never been to another country will say that this is the best country in the world.

Yes, "my country right or wrong is one of the dumbest things a person can say." Defining your country as the basis of what's right and what's wrong is the single most open invitation to totalitarian abuse.

[PokrLikeItsProse]

Patriotism is devotion or love for your country.

Patriotism is neither positive or negative in the abstract.

"My country right or wrong" is an emotional sentiment, just like "blood is thicker than water." It is neither inherently wrong nor inherently stupid to form emotional attachments, even to one's country.

Many angry liberals are patriotic. They are angry because something they care about is being screwed up. Patriotism may be devotion to one's country, but it doesn't have to be mindless devotion and it doesn't have to be devotion to the government.

[Nielsio]

If they get you to love the concept country, you will stop judging the actual acts of men.

Repeat for god, family, etc.







Bush 'plotted to lure Saddam into war with fake UN plane'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...icle342859.ece

[matrix]

do Americans still have to "pledge Alliegance" to the flag every day before school? - or does that only happen in some schools.

That always struck me as a *really* stupid thing to get children to do every day.

[FlFishOn]

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How do you define it?

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Easy. Check out the actions of the New York Times. Patriotism is the opposite of that.

[Machinehead]

Patriotism has different meanings for different people. For example, republicans believe patriotism is supporting your country no matter what and believing everything the government tells you while never forming your own opinion.

[Exsubmariner]

I would sum it up in one word. That word is loyalty.

Put whatever words you want after loyalty. To the constitution, to the ideals of the founders, whatever, but loyalty to those things that make your country what it is, and that is your home, for me is what patriotism means. I've thought long and hard about that.

There are a lot of people in this country who feel disaffected. But, what they don't realize is that there is nowhere else they can go in the world that will be like the US. This is it. It's all there is. If they want to make it better, than they have to participate in a positive way to do that. I'm not talking about participating politically, either. It can be in some other way. The more people participate, they more they will learn about why things are the way they are and if they are not right, than participation will empower people to contribute to changes that make it right.

I see lots of people who don't want to do what they need to do. They want to complain and criticize and that doesn't contribute anything positive, it only makes enemies.

There is supposed to be something magical about this country. There is supposed to be some mystical process by which everything turns out in the end. Between the market and the good will of the people, things are always supposed to get better. I don't see that working very much lately. I see it is strained, and hope it isn't broken. If it is, we really are screwed and it is pretty stupid to be patriotic, because what used to be isn't anymore.

[Exsubmariner]

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Education is dumb (although I'm not convinced it's that much better elsewhere), health care is expensive, drug laws are brutal, women have to be 18, drinkers have to be 21, we're more in debt than any country in the world, our citizens' average net worth is negative

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And why do think this is? Could it be a bankrupt political ideaology? Perhaps government interferrence in market efficiencies in the form of regulation? Take a shot.