See, this I get. You find your spot, a place you like, where you thrive,where you interact with poeple you like who share a common interest, goal, outlook.
And this I don’t get. American patriot. I can’t conect to all Swedish people, this being a country the size of California, with a population of roughly 9M. Thus, I can’t begin to understand what common ideas and ideals someone from Sothern California, shares with someone from rural Michigan, metropolitan [del]Caucasian[/del] Atlanta and the South Side of Chicago. I’ve spent enough time in the U.S. to be confident that these groups are as widely set apart as Greeks and Scots - yet, in the U.S. - those differences seem less important than the… idea of America.
That’s pretty much all of it, for me. I’m a flag waving, Red-blooded, patriotic radical lefty, and its the dream of America I love. I get all teary thinking about the glorious Revolution, even as I know full well that it is half-legend, half-myth and a quarter bullshit. I don’t care.
What’s that you say, my beloved scratches herself in an unseemly manner and farts silently? That she is neither demure nor alluring, nor does she embody all the virtues of the Goddess?
Liar!
But Greater Serbia? What kind of idiot would kill for Greater Serbia?
The concept isn’t so much “I love all Americans.” Of course I don’t. I don’t even love all of my family members, for goodness’ sake. It’s more that I love the way things are supposed to work here (granted, that’s not always reality).
I believe in the freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights. I love the national park system. I appreciate the fact that states are given a measure of legal autonomy so that I can find a state I really like.
Here’s how I think my definition of patriotism works. As I wrote the first sentence of the previous paragraph, I could almost hear some of our more liberal Dopers preparing to scream about the assault on those freedoms by certain members of our government. To me, someone who says “America sucks because George Bush is trying to crush our freedoms” isn’t a patriot–he’s part of the problem. Someone who says “Our freedoms are endangered; let’s defend them and work to preserve them” is a patriot.
I don’t get patriotism either - I mean, the world is a damn big place - it’s pretty unlikely that I just happened to be born smack in the very best bit.
‘U.S. forces in Baghdad might now be searching high and low for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but in the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years, according to former U.S. intelligence diplomats and intelligence officials.’
‘But it was Donald Rumsfeld’s trip to Baghdad which opened of the floodgates during 1985-90 for lucrative U.S. weapons exports–some $1.5 billion worth-- including chemical/biological and nuclear weapons equipment and technology, along with critical components for missile delivery systems for all of the above. According to a 1994 GAO Letter Report (GAO/NSIAD-94-98) some 771 weapons export licenses for Iraq were approved during this six year period…not by our European allies, but by the U.S. Department of Commerce.’
I think too many people mistake patriotism for nationalism. Too many people believe, with a completely unshakeable faith, that we are the best and most free country in the world. And this belief is not based upon a deep self reflection and examination of this country and other countries. It is simply taken as an article of faith.
And that attitude seems to completely scoff at the idea that we can learn ANYTHING from other countries, or we should even consider whether our foreign policies have unjustly screwed other people over. To even hint at such a thing makes one a member of the “blame america first” crowd. It’s people with that kind of attitude that have hijacked the word “patriotic”, and it has taken on uncomfortable connotations for me.
I guess I’ve always felt pretty lucky to be an American. There’s lots of great places in the world – I should mention to the OP that my mother lives in his neck of the woods, I was just in that area a few weeks ago and think it is pretty nice – but personally I’ve found patriotism as a feeling along the lines of, there’s no place like home. It doesn’t mean that your friends’ homes suck. It’s just that I like my home very well, thank you very much.
I must say that my opinion of my home country actually improves the more I travel. It’s not that I think other places are worse, it is like the Eliot quote: “And the end of all our exploring, we will arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” (Or however that goes.) After spending some time in China, I really liked arriving home and seeing the US flag everywhere. That’s something that I didn’t notice or appreciate before then.
Patriotism doesn’t mean believing that you happened to be born in the best country in the world, any more than feeling love and loyalty and devotion to your parents (even if they were very good parents) means believing objectively that they are the very best people in the world.
How can you not be proud to live in the country that gave the world Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland ??? (And I don’t think anybody would kick Princess Victoria out of bed either.) I feel so sorry that you are stuck with the hottest royal to ever be born. You really should put her on the krona.
Well… sure, Maddie is a hottie, and I bet the Hef would pay serious dollars to have her in his magazine.
But I’m twice her age and there are a lot of hot fems in the world. That a beautiful girl from a German/French lineage happened to become third in line for the throne in my country doesn’t make my heart go va-Va-Voom.
