Patriotism

Riot_Rain wrote:

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong.

I think a lot of American people know the stories about how their ancestors travelled to wherever they settled and how they set up a life for themselves. America is not that old, so it's fairly easy to trace your history back. These settlers and immigrants started something new. They wrote a constitution and made a flag. They had some losses, some successes.

My country has been around for ages. I can probably trace back where my ancestors lived, but sitting here now I don't have a clue. I don't know what they did, or why. I don't feel fond of our flag, the contitution is 'boring'. It's all history that does not mean anything to me personally.

I think there is a difference there... Anyone agree?

I wonder if this is why people pledge allegiance to flags and all that. But I could be wrong.

Darn, it's Friday afternoon and my brain is fried. Sorry

I agree. I don't really care about my history. I think having pride in something someone else did is kind of silly. Heck, I think pride is just kind of silly in general.

Byrnzie wrote:

Because I'm a revolutionary romantic idealist.

Byrnzie wrote:

If they disagree then I'm emigrating to the highlands and changing my name to Byrnster McFungus!

you'd be most welcome buddy

hendrix78 wrote:

It's stupid to piss on anyone's flag. It's just disrespectful. It's fine if you personally think flags have no purpose or value, but you don't have to be disrespectful to those who feel otherwise. If you do, you're being just as arrogant as anyone who says "my country is the best." It would make you a hypocrite.

The thing is if we judge an apple by the standard of oranges, it won't measure up. It has it's own standard.

If Byrnzie spits (or worse) on the flag, to him, maybe it's a statement of unity and doing away with the symbols that further pronounce an illusionary separation between humans.

To you, within your own context where you obviously believe in the symbol of the flag, you hear him and it sounds insulting to you. Both of you are right to have your own view, and to stand behind it. You are not right if you expect the other person to do what you think is right within your view, which is different from theirs. In other words, the confusion happens when we expect another to share the same view as we do, when they just don't. We're so blinded by our own view that we do not realize our view, and the other view both stand.

Actually, the flag doesn't mean much to me. I just think showing disrespect to other's beliefs will never get you very far in trying to make your point. It's not a matter of imposing my views of right and wrong on someone. If one wants to try to cast down symbols and such, he would do better to find another way to show the lack of value in the symbol. Pissing on it will just be a rallying cry to those who believe in it.

I agree that conflicting world views make it impossible to expect someone with a different view to interpret our actions in the way we intend. That's why, to effectively make your point, you should try to recognize and be rerspectful of the other's world view.