Well I’m certainly glad that I’m a New Zealander. There are far far worse places I could live. But I wouldn’t really say I feel any “love” for this particular arbitrary set of borders.
Those borders aren’t that arbitrary. Start walking in any direction until you hit some blueish stuff. You will find that it is very cold and uninviting. Turn around and walk. Same thing. People just can’t make that stuff up.
Yeah, OK, I really couldn’t have picked a worse country to make that comment about. 
Yes, I love my country.
I love it even more having lived in foreign countries. As much as I enjoyed living there and learning about other cultures and learning new languages and being an ambassador for the USA instead of an Ugly American, I gotta say that when I came back home, I realized how really good we have it.
I don’t understand how you don’t understand that I don’t understand “love of country”. 
Understand!?
Okay, I’m beginning to understand. Kind of. The word “love” can be used to refer to many things.
Not sure, though, that you can “decide to love” something, but that’s a different discussion.
I’m another one of those people who doesn’t have just one country - I have three… I was born in one, was given citizenship in another due to my parents, and lived in another and became a citizen. (American/Canadian/Irish - in no particular order.)
Do I love one of them? There are good and bad things about each - each one is special to me - and if you had asked me at 20, I would have given a different answer than in my 30’s or my 40’s.
I guess in a strange way I do love them all…
I love BBQ, Fireworks on the 4th of July, Swimming in the Gulf in the Summer, the Smokies in the Fall, Maple syrup on my pancakes, and Peanut Butter and Jelly for my lunch. I love driving west 2000 miles with no more consideration than a look in my eye and gas money, I love that my grandfathers went to war by choice so that others didn’t have to, I love shooting a 30/06 and telling the Jehovah’s Witnesses to fuck right off (well, not at the same time… and I don’t say fuck off… I politely say thanks, but no thanks), I love Jazz and Blues and Rock, I love Hollywood movies even when they’re really bad sometimes, I love bass boats and monster trucks, I love the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas and Lake Superior and the Mississippi down by New Orleans. I love my country for giving me these things along with the freedom to enjoy them as I choose.
Love my country ? Not at all; I never have. It’s just an arbitrary administrative district; one controlled by people I despise.
Sure I love my country. I love Australia in the same way that I love Scotland (where I spent a large part of my childhood), or I love singing, or I love reading Science Fiction. They’re all things that have played a large part of my life, and given me lots of enjoyment. My country is peaceful and prosperous, has a nice climate, contains many friends of mine, and is beautiful. What’s not to like?
I do not love my country in the same way that I love my children, husband, family or friends. The “love of country” part is incomparably less important.
I do not always approve of my country, particularly under the current government of knuckleheads (and especially considering that a majority of my fellow-citizens voted for them :smack: on multiple occasions :smack: :smack: ).
On the other hand, there are not very many countries (as represented by their governments) of which I do approve - governments tend in general to be small-minded and amoral entities.
And of course I don’t harbour any illusions that the other inhabitants of my country are in any way morally superior, on the whole, to the inhabitants of the rest of the world. But I do feel comfortable with them. They’re what I’m used to.
Wow!
I’ll bet many people are surprised at this :rolleyes:
The OP asked; I answered. Did you expect me to lie ?
You lie? never in a million.
From an “American” living in Canada quoting a Canadian on the USA.
“I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can’t stand the scene.”
Oh God, I thought I was the only one! I’ve been living abroad for the past three years and avoid my fellow countrymen at all costs. Rick Jay echos my sentiments perfectly.
Seriously, some of the crap that comes out of their mouth is painfully embarrassing. When people ask me about my home country, I generally state that I’m from North America…
*Personally I blame Molson Canadian and their marketing wizards.
Crikey chowder I spontaneously started humming Jerusalem when reading that!
I’m an American and I can truly say I loved my country. I’ve always been politically active, I have voted in almost every election since I turned 18. I was never a jingoist, I saw America’s flaws, but I felt that its core values were admirable and that in general the US has been a positive influence in the world.
Now, however, I cannot say that I love America. As readers of my posts know, I recently concluded a year in Baghdad as a foreign aid worker. In total, I have lived and worked in Iraq for 2.5 years since the invasion. I think what the US has done is so shameful that I can no longer love my country. Imagine a VA Tech shooting every day, all day. That is what we have created. I can’t love a society that would do such a thing and then just wander off.
I’m heartbroken by all this, but I will never vote again. I don’t care if I ever live in the US again. All I want from my country is to be left the hell alone by it.
I don’t know why anyone thought I was kidding about my personal take on the lack of patriotism in Canada. Maybe it’s changed a lot in the nine years I’ve been gone. For the 38 years I lived there, patriotism seemed confined to “Hooray, we’re not Americans.” This thread is the first I have ever heard of the existence of the Ugly Canadian, acting like idiots abroad and embarrassing fellow countrymen. Perhaps it’s possible to have a whole different view on what it means to live there if you haven’t spent your whole life within an hour of American culture, being constantly bombarded by it on TV and radio.
I can’t say I’ve ever witnessed a display of Canadian patriotism, not to say that it doesn’t exist in abundance. In my day, it was a much quieter kind of thing, where we didn’t go around flaunting it like Americans did. It was considered a point of pride that we didn’t act like the Ugly American, of which we had all heard. If it’s different there now, that’s a shame.
…and a small tear trickled slowly down Struans face, paused a brief moment and then fell, to splash gently on his keyboard.
His shoulders heaved with a passion never felt before, drawing himself up to his full height, he spontaneously burst into song, his heart filled with pride…
“and did those feet…”
I love the concepts our nation was built on. I love the geographic, ethnic and demographic diversity we enjoy. However, I’m less than pleased with the current interpretation of some of the concepts that have made us great. The people in the driver’s seat are not “my country”; they’re custodians of the interpretation and in my opinion, they’re doing a lousy job right now. The beauty of it is that it can change.
I love Australia deeply and dearly. But I don’t think that’s the same thing as being patriotic. Sure, I feel proud when, say, one of our Olympians wins gold and the anthem plays, but that’s a very, very limited pride. The true emotion is much more subtle. It might be triggered by a certain type of humour, or the sight of Sydney sandstone cliffs from the plane, or an evening in the bush.
But for all that, I never think it is the greatest country on Earth. It might be to me, but once that feeling becomes absolute, things get dangerous. I’ve enjoyed the other countries I’ve been to, I’ve appreciated their beauty, and I’ve seen the genuine love of country in their inhabitants.
I love my country more than my nation.