Why are people nationalistic?

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Cause lending that coffee to your hipster neighbor gets old. Yes, it's that simple.

[They call me Loyalty 1,948]

A way to answer this question would be for you to come into contact with nationalism and let yourself be assimilated by this ideas or distortions. Let the experience shape your being.

The answer is a knowledge without words, a form of wisdom that means to be at peace with the unknown.

If you find it in yourself, then you'll realize there won't be anymore inner conflict with those aspects our world is reflecting about your being.

Let it shape you, don't be afraid, accept the catalyst of the other-self, otherwise you'll polarize due to self-ignorance, judgment.

[The Recherche 29,968]

It depends, really. On some level, it's not unhealthy to be proud of your country or its heritage; the issue arises when it comes at the expense of another's. In some ways, a country can live and die off of its values, but at the same time, if left unchecked, can lead to imperialism. WW1 was so huge for a reason; pretty much every damn European country wanted a larger share of the continent and beyond, which sparked conflicts of unprecedented size... all in the name of pride.

At the end of the day, nationalism is not inherently bad, but it can sometimes become imperialism if it's left to run wild, or when left in horrible hands (Austria-Hungary can attest to this).

[Here No Longer 5,276]

It is mainly to do with pride to be where they came from, which is fine. It's okay to be patriotic as long as it isn't taken so far as to take offense to others not being as patriotic as you are (cough the American far right cough). 

 

[TBD 17,254]

It's not wrong to love your own country but not to the extent of being delusional and arrogant towards the world. Me on the other hand, I don't care much about the US.

[Sliding Bolt 4,358]

I am quite the patriot but I have nothing against people who aren’t from the same place. I don’t believe that patriotism is racism but I do know that there are people out there that fall into both.

[thepissman 76]

I don’t understand it either. I think instead of shouting “WE ARE THE BEST” over and over that we should sit down with other countries and discuss what we could improve in our country. For an example, take a look at the American education system, that thing is atrocious!

[Dreambiscuit 9,818]

Having a sense of built-in patriotism is a lot like rooting for the home team at a sports event. Just because it's the 'home team' doesn't make it the better team or necessarily the one that deserves favor. But on the other hand, people grow up and live in the culture and society they're born into. As such, they enjoy an 'insider's' perspective on it's good points, many of which might go over the heads of someone from a foreign country. Every place and culture has it's ups and downs, but we tend to see the ups in ourselves and the downs in others of whom we may have a more limited understanding. It's just human nature, whether it's right or wrong.  

[Victoria Sponge 1,017]

A sense of belonging, gratitude for the country and it's laws as they help you to live your life and grow up. When it boils down to it, it's just human nature, we're territorial and that's at the route of it. To be fair though I'm talking more about patriotism, to me nationalism and patriotism are interchangeable terms and the Google definition backs this up. I don't like what I prefer to call ultra-nationalism, believing that your country is better at everything, always, no matter what, and that people from other countries are lesser and should be killed.

[ShadOBabe 18,997]

On 5/14/2014 at 1:55 PM, RainboomCrash said:

the luck of being born there should get first refusal on jobs etc

The grammar is confusing me a bit, so maybe I'm misunderstanding.

But if you're trying to suggest here that people that are not citizens of a country, ANY COUNTRY, and thus do not pay taxes to help support that country, should get the same opportunity at the jobs offered in that country, then I'm going to have to inform you that that has nothing to do with nationalism or racism or whatever. That's common sense. If you live somewhere, you should not have to compete for jobs with people that illegally came over the border.

Now if they LEGALLY immigrated, then yeah, they have the same right to work the same jobs any citizen does. If they legally immigrated, then it is their home country now too.

EDIT: Holy crap this thread was made in 2014! Who resurrected it?

Edited May 11, 2018 by ShadOBabe