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Am I thankful I was born here instead of a lot of other countries? Absolutely, although there are quite a few other countries I would feel the same way about had I been born there instead. Do I feel pride for this country? No. I don't feel pride or shame. To me it's similar to how in high school a lot of people would be extremely proud and happy when our team won a game, and I was completely disinterested. It's just not a "thing" that I experience.
Do I feel proud to be an American because I think the US is special? No. Do I feel content with living in the US? Absolutely. Why? For the simple reason it is home! It is the only place where I can go and not be seen as a foreigner. Even in Canada, I had people ask me too many questions about why I was there. So it is not that I am blindly patriotic or nationalistic...it is just that since this is where I was raised and hold citizenship, it is the place I am most comfortable living in because it is home.
Not at all. I identify more with cities or regions far more than the country as a whole. Patriotism seems more harmful to me than anything. It's that kind of jingoistic thinking that has caused so many problems in the past.
None, maybe some state or city pride for a few places. America is too monolithic. I could see the pride coming into play for sure, back when it was the colonies vs the british or something... or during war time such as WWII... But hard to be prideful about invading Iraq (twice) or Afghanistan... the wars I've seen in my life time.
Being a minority in America is kind of hard to be extremely patriotic in my opinion to this country. I have a large extended family of Italians, Asians, and Puerto Ricans and each of them signifies with their own country, not the US. In fact, my Korean grandmother hates the US and would never talk anything negative about Korea.
Then you have my cousins who are Italian and some who are half Puerto Rican as well and they all have Italian sayings tatooed on them and the Puerto Ricans all listen to Puerto Rican hip hop music and my one cousin's car is customized with a Puerto Rican flag painted on the driver's side.
No one in my family is really "proud to be an American" to say, but they love their own countries and own heritage.
I consider myself very patriotic and love my country. One of my biggest regrets is not joining the military when I was young enough to do so.
I also consider myself an east coast / west coast liberal. What I can stand is how many rightwing nutjobs seem to think that they hold sole ownership to patriotism.
If the OP equates patriotism with flag waving, or with the love-it-or-leave-it attitude, I'm afraid I have nothing to say that will be comprehensible to him.
I sometimes sound patriotic because I'll defend America when people go on about how horrible it is. It has some qualities I like that are rare in the developed world and it helped make me who I am. So I could see loving it the way you love a parent. You don't think your parent's necessarily a saint or even the best parent ever, but they're yours and there's a bond there. And that would be the closest I get to patriotism, not that I'm quite like that.
Anyway I don't consider myself patriotic. I'm probably too set in my ways to adapt to another nation, but I'm open to the idea. And America is not really a great analogy to a parent because America is not a person. It's a nation among many nations. And to be quite frank its founding has some elements I don't really agree with. (Freemasons, Deists, complaints in the Declaration of Independence about how the British whipped up "the merciless Indian Savages", etc) And most importantly I kind of believe in loving all peoples, not just clannish connection to the one that birthed you. So traditionally I try not to focus on loving or hating America. Both seem to be making America into something too grand, when it's really just 5% of the world.
Still all its consequences means I could consider the "love of a parent" form as you can love a parent without thinking your parents interests are always paramount. Heck possibly most people would defy a parent if there was really a greater good at stake. And as a Christian going against your parent for a greater good is specifically in the Gospels.
All through school, we're taught that the United States is "the land of the free and the home of the brave," "the greatest country in the world," and "the greatest country this world's ever known." It is amazing truly that we're risen from scrappy and fighting in 1776 to the (at least right now) lone superpower in 2012. However, just today I was thinking, "are we really so great, after all?"
In just the last three years, I've gone from "extremely" to "a bit" patriotic. In only three years! I am disgusted by the direction this nation is taking politically and socially--extreme divisiveness in Congress, budget shortfalls here in California, good ol' boy politics as usual in my home state of Kentucky, and, the biggest with me, rapid degradation of social manners and "sense." We're becoming oh so socially retarded so quickly as a nation! It's even gotten to a point that in dating, I will seldom consider American-born women because of their attitudes (not looks) and go for Asian-emigrated or Asian-American women that are not 100% Americanized yet.
Meet an average pool of ten WWII-era Americans, ten Baby Boomer Americans, and ten Americans in my generation (age 18-32). The first two are usually more "self-built," better mannered and are less pretentious and materialistic. Even though my generation will have to work longer and harder to achieve some sort of "American dream," there is also more of a sense and attitude of entitlement that will ultimately cause many to (1) never achieve the "dream" or (2) become bigger a-holes then they already are because they have "made it." I know this sounds pessimistic, but I dare, just dare somebody to challenge me on that statement! Why do you think you hear and read so many complaints about us yuppies in places like NYC, SF, L.A., Atlanta, Seattle, San Diego, etc.? I don't blame those locals who feel like their neighborhood is becoming "pricey" or not as neighborly.
With federally-enacted programs like the TSA, No Child Left Behind and the Affordable Health Care Act, our federal government is trying to impose a monolithic sociological and enforcement standard on an extremely diverse (in every way imaginable) nation of 310,000,000 people. Coupled with our general distrust of government regardless of political affiliation, and this has been ongoing since our nation's founding, people hate the TSA, NCLB (and really the Dept. of Education) is a complete failure, local control of schools is slowly eroding, and any step toward universal healthcare just won't work like it would in a more "trusting" and/or homogenous society like Canada, Sweden, or Germany. (Long sentence, I realize.)
Rural America also provides very few opportunities and, quite frankly, really has many crappy communities that are slowly dying. However, any genuine hope I have left in America is in the small towns that are trying to improve their image and build sustainable (demographically and environmentally) communities as this shows they're thinking longer term.
I still hold some hope for this country's political, social, economic, and fiscal future, but it's slowly eroding by the day. I've already started researching Japan, the Philippines, Chile, and New Zealand for a potential move long-term.
If I sound angry to you, guess what? I kinda am!
Last edited by EclecticEars; 05-20-2012 at 10:40 PM..
I put down a "bit." Actually more than a "bit," but with so many relatives in Europe, my zeal is somewhat diluted.
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