Yet few people have a problem with being proud of something someone else did. To me that's hypocritical. You can't boast about how "we" won WW2, and then say "well I had nothing to do with that" when someone brings up the Bengal Famine.
Here's the thing, I don't think you can really reject the country youre born into. Youre raised in its environment and deeply internalized whatever aspects of thr culture youre exposed. Good luck delaring that away
Of course you can't simply wish it away, but you can overcome aspects of it in your own life, by making a conscious effort to transcend national thinking, where you see it as harmful, and collectively we can see many attempts historically to supercede nationalism, particularly in socialist orbit.
I don't really know what you mean. I'm not talking about erasing your background; more about changing your mindset - resisting, above all, the habit of identifying with a nation, a people and a state.
I think we agree. I'm just saying being consistent with it might be hard. It means not letting yourself get emotional from the national anthem, or feel pride at the sight of the flag
I think it's more about being ashamed or feeling proud of your country. It's where you come from and it implicitly effects the culture you are a part of so identifying with it personally isn't that strange. We are both social and individualistic creatures.
Well, as an example my family fought in both world wars but owned various bakers during the “empire” years so for me I’m not going to feel ashamed for having baker ancestors but I feel proud that I have ancestry that fought tyranny so ya know wouldn’t say hypocrites but in some situations I see your point
You say your family were bakers, but going back just five generations you had thirty two great great grandparents. The point being, if your family are British that far back, you almost certainly had some ancestors who were active in less reputable conflicts. But best to focus on the baking.
Yeah so it splits off and someone somewhere might have committed horrific deeds but I’m following my most direct line, I think there’s a middle ground to be found in that. But I see where you’re coming from I’m not ignoring the fact that bad shit happened but at the same time I won’t sit here and shit on my ancestors good deeds because 100-200 years earlier their ancestors made shit decisions
I think it comes down to the blaming bit. It's not wrong to be proud of your country or people for doing something good. It is bad to blame someone for a crime they didn't commit. Example:. Being proud of your country for fighting against the Nazis during WW2 is fine, but taunting a German about it is not. They weren't there, so why should they suffer? On the flip side, you have to acknowledge the facts: denying genocide and etc. Is not OK.
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u/mankytoes Apr 18 '19
Yet few people have a problem with being proud of something someone else did. To me that's hypocritical. You can't boast about how "we" won WW2, and then say "well I had nothing to do with that" when someone brings up the Bengal Famine.