The question is Lee; does patriotism stem from only good events within a country's history when there is no country nor any individual that has a, let's say, squeaky clean history. So in that aspect do you not have pride in yourself or your country because of the lack of a perfect track record? We can not recriminate over the activities of the former ruling class or leaders of our countries. We did not make any decisions concerning those events and we as individuals may have made different decisions at the time if we were the head of the ruling class, but we weren't were we?. America's history is riddled with horror but the people that perpetrated those horrors are not my ancestors nor do I have any responsibility for them. England is a great country if not only for the fact of setting precedents of civilization for others to follow. It is not England's fault that others were primitive within the same time frame of history. It is not the fault of any country that certain civilizations were stagnant in development and it is only natural for civilized people to establish dominance over uncivilized people. Be proud to be English but at the same time recognize and learn from the mistakes you have identified. It is the future of England that you are patriotic to not the past.
On Feb 11, 7:44 am, Lee <[email protected]> wrote: > We have, like most things, had a bash at this here before, but I still > have unresovled questions so here goes again. > > I'm not really a patriot, it's not that I hate my country, I certianly > don't, but I don't really love it either. I don't feel anything for > the land in which I have been blessed to be born. > > I don't get patriotism, I simply don't understand how one can feel > pride in the achivments of ones country without also feeling the shame > for the shamefull things, and most patriots that I am aware of > certianly do not exhibit that they feel such shame, whilst the pride > of any patriot is almost overwhelming. I don't undertand this. > > What vaule or merit is there in patriotism? > > In the interest of full disclosure though I must admit that as a > native Londoner, my heart does skip a beat everytime hear a London > accent on the TV, or in a piece of music, yet I have come to quite > detest the city(perhaps this is just my age?). I feel no pride in > being a Londoner, the footie team I support is a Northen english one, > yand I certianly can't explain this heart skipping thing at all. > > What do you think?© -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.
