Just like being proud of your family means helping them do their best, being proud of your country is a duty to understand what it does well and poorly, and do whatever you can to help it do its best. I’m proud of the mythology we’ve built around the US being the “good guys”, so it’s my duty to call it out when it doesn’t live up to that ideal, and do whatever I can to help it move in the direction of those ideals. Even when it stumbles, theres a worthy goal to strive for
If we’re not the first to call out the gaps, then we have failed our country/family/city/corp, and our pride is meaningless blind obedience. NONE of these cases should be blind trust or blind love.
I help my kid remember to do his homework; I can help my country remember not to be fascist, racist, warmongering genocide supporters. I can still be proud of them when they fail,help them pick themselves up from the depths of failure, and help them try harder next time
Being proud of my country is the reason I protest when I’m disappointed in some of its choices, otherwise, why would I care?
That would be the healthy way of looking at it, but sadly isn’t the case for most who are “proud of their country.” The reality is that many just feel proud because they are told to, because it’s pushed onto them from the moment they attend school (the Pledge of Allegiance every day in class is an example of this). Being proud of one’s country for the sake of it just breeds nationalism, which just breeds extremism.
Just like being proud of your family means helping them do their best, being proud of your country is a duty to understand what it does well and poorly, and do whatever you can to help it do its best. I’m proud of the mythology we’ve built around the US being the “good guys”, so it’s my duty to call it out when it doesn’t live up to that ideal, and do whatever I can to help it move in the direction of those ideals. Even when it stumbles, theres a worthy goal to strive for
If we’re not the first to call out the gaps, then we have failed our country/family/city/corp, and our pride is meaningless blind obedience. NONE of these cases should be blind trust or blind love.
I help my kid remember to do his homework; I can help my country remember not to be fascist, racist, warmongering genocide supporters. I can still be proud of them when they fail,help them pick themselves up from the depths of failure, and help them try harder next time
Being proud of my country is the reason I protest when I’m disappointed in some of its choices, otherwise, why would I care?
That would be the healthy way of looking at it, but sadly isn’t the case for most who are “proud of their country.” The reality is that many just feel proud because they are told to, because it’s pushed onto them from the moment they attend school (the Pledge of Allegiance every day in class is an example of this). Being proud of one’s country for the sake of it just breeds nationalism, which just breeds extremism.
I would agree with this.