Screw Patriotism
I’ve decided that I believe most patriotism is dangerous. Some, like sports patriotism, or being proud of the silly things you like about your country (like tea, or the english language) is great, in fact its what makes life different from country to country.
Pride in one’s country, in one’s nation, simply for what the nation is – Thats iffy. It happens a lot to Americans, i find. “I LOVE AMERICA because its AMERICAN”. All well and good, but sooner or later you get the psychopaths who believe every other country is worse than your nation. All nations are equal (except for the french of course, they can go hang… Joking, btw) . None is “better”.
The British are a great example of why blind patriotism is wrong. What makes britain awesome is the fact that we are a mongrel nation. The English language, for example, is one of the most bastardised in the world. If we haven’t got a name for something we usually steal it, rather than make up an english sounding word. Pajamas, Shampoo (Indian languages), Zeitgeist (German). Heck, we even steal things from dead languages. Half of english words have a root in latin or french (again, french joke). same with our food. the most popular dish? a Scottish take on an Indian classic – Chicken Tikka Masala
Being proud of a nations history is all well and good too, up untill you start denigrating other nations. Yes, we always joke about the germans, but we really fucked them up. we did commit war crimes – Crimes like Dresden. Same with the Japanese - Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Strategic bombing doesn’t really work very well. Trust me, i’ve studied the theory. And whilst i heartily believe that without Hiroshima and Nagasaki we would all have lived (or not lived) through at least one nuclear war by now, it does not excuse the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.
If only there were a bomb which targeted the leaders, rather than the poor schmucks they rule.
On a similar note, i’m glad to see that Serbia’s neighbours have recognised Kosova. Hopefully this will quench some of the utterly idiotic nationalism so rampant in serbia (or so it seems from the media). I was sickened to see that they were using images of Churchill, who probably would’ve smacked the shit out of the Serbians in question by now. Kosova is no longer part of serbia. Fucking deal with it. Maybe if you hadn’t tried to murder the ethnic albanians who comprise the massive majority in Kosova it’d still be a part of serbia. So what if you keep getting attacked by ethnic albanian terrorist groups. Spain managed not to commit genocide against the Basques despite their terrorist actions , so why no you? We didn’t try to murder the northern Irish catholics when their terrorists bombed shopping centres, killing innocent women and children… Etc Etc. You get the picture.
Another thing i have a problem with – Rabid American patriotism as covered earlier. It really pisses me off. Most of the time because the people spouting it are too fucking stupid to realise that its the differences within America which makes it what it is. Great panel of a comic which springs to mind is one of xkcd’s ones – http://xkcd.com/84/ -
“When you go live somewhere, you learn the language they speak there. English is the language of the land”
“Excuse me but osio Sarah dawado”
“what the hell was that?”
“Cherokee”
- Brilliantly sums up the point that english speakers pissed at the spanish speakers should deal with it and learn spanish. America has no national language because its a nation of immigrants. Goodness knows they all love harking back to whatever ancestry they have… “I’m irish/scottish” (no, you aren’t, you’re an american, dumbass. Where did you grow up, Dublin, or New York? New York? Well then)
Grah.
Rant over.
A disclaimer. These are my current beliefs. they may change with time. Ask me about our care package what i think about something before jumping to conclusions about me. Also know i’m a politics student at one of the top universities in the world for politics. so if you start debating politics or history, you really better know your stuff. If i have to i will look stuff up to back up my arguments.
Feel free to debate with me tho. Personal attacks net you an automatic ignore. My blog, My rules.
Jumping on the bandwagon and criticizing a country is just too easy. I read your restrictions on personal attacks so please don’t take this the wrong way when I tell you, I’m a European-American, dumbass. Where my ancestors live and breathe and fight and love for hundreds of years? Europe or America? Europe? Well then. Where did I grow up these past few years? America? Good. Two fine examples of heritage.
Hah, jumping on a bandwagon? to which state do you refer, The USA or Serbia? I love the USA, i just wish its leaders were a bit better at running the most powerful nation on the planet. Serbia is another issue. I went to kosova a few years back and saw the damage they did first hand and as a result i have no sympathy for serbian nationalism.
As far as the Ancestor thing goes, are you a first or second generation american? If so, go for it, use the hyphenated american thing. Third generation is iffy, but past that, you’re pure american. Why? Well, past the third generation you almost certainly grew up with the same language as your peers, your parents grew up at least speaking the same language as your peers, and your grandparents speak English at least as a second language. You grew up with much the same culture as your peers, the same tv, news, and history. This makes you American through culture and language.
Don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t forget where your (great)grandparents came from, but neither should you define yourself by what *they* did and where *They* came from. You are not your grandparents.
What do you mean by European amercan thing anyway? Europe’s a big place.
I think it’s a mistake to say, Well, if you’re a third or fourth gen American, you’re just entirely American. Really, talk about a way to increase the depth of that patriotic feeling that you so eschew. With this attitude anyone who has a love for their country will never physically leave their country, right or wrong, because of a fear they will cut the ties to it completely. In a global society we have to be ready to consider ourselves hybrids, a little of this, a little of that. As with most issues in life, it’s not black and white.
As far as European-American is concerned, it’s simply my attempt at maintaining a degree of privacy. Of course, Europe is a large, diverse continent. But in keeping with my beliefs about the hybrid nature of our selves, it is possible for an individual to represent a number of ethnicities, making ‘European’ a natural choice of wording that encompasses many.
Another thing, you seem to want people to acknowledge their ancestry, say English, without identifying themselves in part by it, which seems to me to be contradictory. You can’t divorce yourself from your roots. And, finally, it stands to reason that if an individual is inclined to, as you say, define himself or herself by ethnicity, then that’s already proof that they’re deserving of identifying themselves that way. Love of your heritage earns you the right to claim it.
On what basis are you “European american” past the third generation? the only real way in which an “irish” american differs from a “German” american at this stage is the geographical location some distant ancestor came from, along with some distant memories and dusty photographs.
Fair do’s as for the europan american thing. Indeed, an individual can represent many ethnicities. However, in my opinion, defining one’s self by one’s grandparents’ origins is a strange thing to do. I myself plan on emigrating at some point, probably either to the USA or Canada, and i would prefer to define myself by where i came from. However, my children, and my childrens’ children, would be about as English as a Boeing 747. Granted, bits of it originate from England, but it is most definitely american.