Are you "proud" of your country?

Do you think that promoting national pride to kids is a good idea?

Would you go to war for your country?

Do you hate/love another country in particular?

no.

getting people united is a great way to pull the blinders over their eyes before bending them over.
I am no friend of the state, it doesn't have the best interests of the people in the agenda.

Be proud of your immediate local community and the part you play in it, but take that no further. Nationalism beyond that is a dangerous belief that few know whats best for all, or that somehow it can be cognitively dissonated as the right thing to do when used to commit acts of aggressive violence/harassment/discrimination on other human beings with human rights. Too much power consolidation over influence on the way people think.

(saying this as our congress considers rescinding the ban on propaganda against us citizens on us soil)

I for one would love to see a world without borders, nationalism, or patriotism, a heavily scrutinized and limited centralized government (local i can deal with as if its a strong community, its truly accessible and responsible to its citizens), and cooperation between all to make that possible. Its a lofty goal though.

no.
no.
no. ..and..
no.

When all the 'cultural niceties' are stripped back, humans reveal themselves to be tribal, territorial and aggressive.Nationalism is simply a sanitised reflection of this, but does open the way to all the negatives which stem from these essential 'qualities' that humankind possesses.

I love the country I live in, I am not proud of it how ever. I am not proud of how we have conducted ourselves politically, either on a local or global scale - and I think nationalism has had a fairly large role to play in this.


No. I think that promotes a jingoistic attitude in people, I have seen it develop myself, indeed, I have been susceptible to it myself, although I had the sense to re-evaluate.


At one point I was going to join the armed forces, fortunately I had the sense to re-evaluate, otherwise I would be in Afghanistan with some fo my old school friends right now


No. I think mankind needs to move past these types of attitudes.

I think that most people on earth share more or less the same values. I would like there to be no borders.

The only distinction i make is that between people who want to live toghether peacefully and those who don´t. In my view, every human being deserves to be treated with respect except those who don´t respect others.

The danger of cultural or moral relativism is that people who don´t wish to respect others, are eventually being treated respectfully themselves as a result of wich they can get away with violence.

So unfortunately, i think that cosmopolitanism can only work when cosmopolitans are intolerant towards people who´re intolerant.

I´m pretty sure that there is a correlation between psychiatric disorders like psychopathy, anti social personality disorder, narcissism and forms of xenophobia like nationalism and religious intolerance. It would be surprising if there would be no such connection.

Nationalism is blind identification with arbitrary borders.

To quote RAW: "“Most mammals mark their territories with excretions. Domesticated primates mark their territories with ink excretions on paper.”

And another famous quote that I got no idea where or who it's from but I totally agree, "think globally, act locally".

I do like the concept of a semi-permeable community, of acting locally, and I think locally-based decisions for the daily workings of a community are great, working for this local development, but certainly not at the expense of other places.

I always find absurd how people identify so much with arbitrary borders that the people who come from outside ("illegal immigrants, for example), are treated like a lesser human being, human rights dont matter anymore, they can suffer and it's all justifiable. We're all humans, with the same value, wherever we are from.

I was born in a country, live in another for some years, and while of course both places have influenced who I am, I dont care for nationalism, I consider myself a citizen of the world, unfortunately with limited rights to move around the world due to a specific paper document I have that says where im from.

Travelling around the world made me see how we are all so different and yet the same, how there's good and bad people everywhere (or, how we're all good and bad inside), and how each place has it's uniqueness and could be appreciated depending on your preferences.

And no, I would never go to war "for my country", because its not for the country, it's going to war for the interest of a few people in power, the poor people stay poor either way. Plus I dont believe in war ever being beneficial. Self defense if your country/neighborhood/house is attacked and your family/loved ones are in danger is very different, though.

I live in Germany, I was born in Belgium, my dad was born in Congo, my grandmother is from Angola and her dad was from Portugal.

What does that make me?

I don't realy care to be honest.

When I was younger I had some issues with my identity, because I realy don't look like a Belgian, and kids use to bully me cause of my looks.

Nowadays I laugh about it and consider myself citizen of the world.

someone who thinks that he is 'going to war for his country' is pretty naive IMO

Are you "proud" of your country? - For some things, yes, but mostly no, the direction the U.S. is headed does not invoke pride.

Do you think that promoting national pride to kids is a good idea? - No, nationalism ultimately divides people and the world needs all the unity it can get.

Would you go to war for your country? - It depends on the reason. The cause would have to be clearly self-defense or VERY righteous (defending innocent people - freeing the enslaved, things like that.)

Do you hate/love another country in particular? - One world, One nation - that's my love in particular.

Nationalism is entirely irrational and has led to some of the greatest atrocities the world has ever known.

I am not proud of myself just based upon the fact that I'm an American. How foolish do you have to be to think that word means anything these days?

One time I was coming off a trip and I was still so high that I was literally glued to the floor, unable to stand up. I had a green marker in my hand and was scribbling on my wall all this shit that was being downloaded into me. Among the various things I wrote, one of them was "I don't want to feel like a nation, I want to feel like a planet!"

No

None of the above.

No, no, hell no, no.

Nope, no to all of the above. I see no benefit to nationalism. It just causes violence.

I don't want to sound like to much of a hippy.

But why can't we all just get along??

nationalism is the exact same logic as racism in my opinion.

my country is the best!
My race is the best!

*shrugs*

i dont see a difference. it just divides people. comedian doug stanhope said it best "nationalism teaches you to hate people you've never met and take pride in accomplishments you had no part in what so ever."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UStr7iNm1A4

I'm proud to be Scottish. Doesn't make me a racist though.

Even If I am proud, it has nothing to do with borders or hate towards other countries.
Proud, from a historical point of view!?!?Maybe.

I would never go to war for my country.I would never go to war.
Nationalism and patriotism in extreme cases or in dumb examples evolves into racism.Which is the result of poorly developed brain.
Going to war feels like being a crusader sent to die for, well nothing.
Love, I love the places obviously, I was born here.But other than that It's just another excuse to argue about irrelevant things.

Being proud of being part of an oppressed, survivor nation, is something quite different from being proud of an oppressive, dominator nation.

But then, being proud of anywhere that you 'happened to be born' is quite odd, considering borders are just lines drawn on a map by ruling classes.

Loving where you live is a different thing entirely, and has little to do with nationalism.

Nationalism and 'nations' are abstract concepts, with no real basis. They are what Benedict Anderson called 'Imagined Communities.'