I am proud to be an American. I am aware of it's flaws, and of its corruption, and it's money driven politics. But I am proud. That is what I believe Patriotism is. It is being proud of where you come from, no matter how horrible the country may be, it is where you were raised, where you learned about different values, and it is where you created a life for yourself.
I think that being patriotic is loving your country, and doing good things in honor of it. Meaningless killing and torturing is not patriotic, and war might not be either. But when one is facing death defending their country, that is patriotic. War happens, it will never stop, and in war there is death. The death may seem meaningless, and it may be but it is a part of war. Being patriotic in war means that you overcome the enemy, even if that ultimately means death. It does not mean that you intentionally kill others who are not fighting. Yes, it may happen, but it does not make that person unpatriotic if they didn't intentionality go out to kill the innocent.
But being patriotic doesn't have to mean fighting in wars or joining the army. It can mean that one holds their own country to a higher standard because they expect so much from it. You know its flaws, but you embrace them, because it has the potential to change. It is the people of the country that we want to succeed because they are a part of you. Being patriotic simply means that you love where you come from and you are proud of it.
I meant to respond to this earlier, but I forgot to. At any rate, here is my response.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot be proud of something that you did not do. The circumstances and chance of your birth lead you to be born in America. You can certainly have other emotional attachments, and those are up to you. I think, however, that you should be rational about them. Seldom do people like thinks that are horrible. Do you think that people should have been proud to live in Nazi Germany? Nazi Germany did use the excuse of defending the country while they kill millions of Jewish people.
War, I think certainly can stop if people who think that it cannot change their minds. Once people stop thinking that war is necessary and that it is honorable to fight and die for something that is wrong, war will stop. Furthermore, these soldiers have not fought to defend our country since WWII. Since then, wars have been over money or to oppress the citizens of other countries (i.e. Vietnam) Enemies, as you put it, is not a clear cut category, we have made up our ideological difference and fight to force ours on others and we fight for money. This is hardly something that is worthy of respect.
Embracing flaws does not equate to a country changing. In fact, it often leads to stagnation. If a country thinks that no matter what it does, it's citizens will be proud, there is no reason to enact positive policy change. Personally, I think we ought to embrace positive things. If we have friends that give to charity, we ought to support them. If these friends change and start to commit murder, thievery, oppresses others (as America does) we should no longer support them.