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Well, I just think patriotism is primitive and outdated, based on indoctrination and ignorance. Intelligent and highly educated people are more immune to indoctrination and also less ignorant, subjective, and emotional. Nobody says you have to agree...
Why is it bad when I dislike a whole country, but good when you like a whole country? Great logic there
And 'whole country'? I am not saying I dislike everything in a country, all I am saying is that there are more things about it that I dislike than things I like...
Idk what education has to do with anything.
People who are more optimistic probably like their country, people who are really negative about things probably hate their country.. has nothing to do with education lol.
We have a big gun control and the violence only gets worse and worse, we don't feel safe wherever we are.
We have (bad) public healthcare but some of the most expensive remedies of the world.
People here can go to university for free, we can study Medicine if we beat more than 10 thousand of those who are also trying to be admited in each federal university.
And we have to work until June ONLY to pay the taxes for these "perfect" and """free""" services.
I think we only miss freedom when we have already lost it. Some people here dream with Scandinavia but they refuse to see that we will go to the same hole where Venezuela went and Argentina is going. And we need to hear our own president telling us to don't be pessimists. Our economy is going bad since 2011, the predictions for 2014 are bad too, Latin America is full of "populists" and we need to be optimists, hahaha.
This is only really seen among liberals and Democrats in the US and liberals in Western European countries. You never see it in Russia, China, India, Japan, etc.
Even the illegal aliens who come to the US still love their native countries and are always flying their flags from their houses.
People who are more optimistic probably like their country, people who are really negative about things probably hate their country.. has nothing to do with education lol.
As I said, educated and intelligent people tend to have different views than average people.
Optimism and pessimism have nothing to do with patriotism. Here in Portugal people are very patriotic, yet at the same time very pessimistic. In Germany it is the other way round. I think it has to do with the fact that the older generations here in Portugal (i.e. quite a lot of people as it is a very overaged country) are not overly educated, a bit backwards, often unaware of what goes on in other places around the world. The younger, very educated generations are much less patriotic and much more critical of Portugal.
My lack of patriotism shows for instance in sports. I always keep my fingers crossed for underdogs, so whenever Iran or Nigeria plays Portugal or Germany at some soccer cup, I keep my fingers crossed for Iran and Nigeria without hesitating...
@ Neuling : it's the opposite! patriots are those who have enough interest in their own country that if there is a bad government, they will overthrow it or if there are bad politics they'll try to reform it : patriotism is critical thought! (different from "nationalism", which is the "right or wrong, my country" school of thought).
On the other hand, people who are not patriots, "world citizens"... they don't give a damn, they are often self-deprecating even! "there is hunger in Africa, it's more important than politics in my own [rotten] country.
Self hate and lack of patriotism are not good recipes for a sound democracy.
Constant pessimism about your own country is annoying, but the reverse is equally as annoying in my opinion.
When I was 18, I was similar to the people you are describing. I had this idea in my mind that I wasn't supposed to live here, and that I would be better suited elsewhere. I think I was more frustrated about my own personal situation and figured that things would be different if I was living somewhere else, or if I was born somewhere else.
And, of course, some people just dislike where they live for whatever reason.
If you want to see British self-loathing at its best, just read the comments section under most Guardian articles. These people are usually trendy urban types who hate the UK and adore everywhere else (especially Germany or Scandinavia).
One thing I see a lot, especially in universities are people who incessantly whine about their own country. These people usually have other countries in mind that they feel they "belong in" or feel they are the best countries in the world. This just seems weird to me, I see this a lot and most of the people I see that hate their own country the most and call people closed minded are typically the ones who have traveled the least.
Is this something you guys notice or see in your countries also?
Complaining about your country does not mean that you hate it. It acknowledging the problems that your nation has versus choosing to ignore them.
Complaining about your country does not mean that you hate it. It acknowledging the problems that your nation has versus choosing to ignore them.
How about constant complaining about your country, talking about how your country is so backwards bases off of just a couple rednecks from Alabama and when your country does something good they just ignore it.
@ Neuling : it's the opposite! patriots are those who have enough interest in their own country that if there is a bad government, they will overthrow it or if there are bad politics they'll try to reform it : patriotism is critical thought! (different from "nationalism", which is the "right or wrong, my country" school of thought).
On the other hand, people who are not patriots, "world citizens"... they don't give a damn, they are often self-deprecating even! "there is hunger in Africa, it's more important than politics in my own [rotten] country.
Self hate and lack of patriotism are not good recipes for a sound democracy.
I can't agree with that at all. Most patriots are stupid people, no trace of critical thought.
The line between patriotism and nationalism is very very thin, many patriots are actually nationalists in thought...
Considering myself a world citizen I indeed don't care about countries as such, the entire globe is my country. If countries disappeared today, I would not miss anything. And yes, of course the fate of starving Africans is more important to me than politics in Berlin or Lisbon. I still have my priorities right and not allowed primitive feelings like patriotism to suffocate my empathy.
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