Friday, November 11, 2011

The patriot...

...or not. A question for Veteran's Day: Does patriotism consist of waving the flag or plastering your vehicles with decals? If not, what constitutes true patriotism in any country?

Another, related question: In these tumultuous times, as the world grows smaller and we realize as never before we are all of one race, the human race, and that we depend upon each other for survival, can we justify pride of country that in any way denigrates other countries?

4 comments:

cieldequimper said...

Lowell, you ask such difficult questions... :-) We could go on and on about this and patriotism is a mystery to me. Probably because I'm a German born French woman with German blood, who lived in Germany, Austria, Great-Britain and France and looooooves to travel... :-)

Cezar and Léia said...

Hey, dear Jacob, you ask the right questions here! That's why they are the difficult ones... :) I reckon borders and walls and missiles are a sign of how primitive we still are... I would really appreciate to live in a world with less frontiers and more ability to accept differences and live with them in peace.
God bless you!
Cezar

Rob Siemann said...

Living in one big country called Europe, with the same currency, without borders, it is very hard for me to condone nationalism. The flag wavers here are usually extremist groups, be it here or in my home country, France. In Barcelona, we do have many political flag waving groups who want independance from Spain. Frankly, nationalism, in Europe, in the US or elsewhere, scares me.

cieldequimper said...

Hi again Lowell! Yes, today is Armistice Day in France and I just heard on the radio that they are planning to change 11/11 from the commemoration of the end of WWI to a sort of Memorial Day...

I totally agree with you re. your comment on HTE. I have had sort of close encounters (too close maybe) in the rural PNW with people like those. Then again, it's indoctrination...

And hence also my comment above: though one may be attached to one's country, the more one travels, the more one interacts with other human beings of different cultures, the less one is patriotic in the sense you mean...

Does that make sense?