Why does the USA always promote patriotism? The United States promotes patriotism because it wants citizens to follow laws and more importantly to join the armed forces. This is not really a hard question to answer however. A more difficult question to answer is what makes us feel patriotism. We feel a sense of pride when we see war movies, see our flag raised, we win Olympic medals or we hear stories about our country's past. Sometimes we even feel an obligation to serve our country because we feel this patriotism.
I find patriotism to be a very interesting "feeling" if it can even be called that. I think it is just a form of pride placed on our country rather than ourselves. We often have "feelings" when things happen directly to us or things directly affect us. For example, if I get an "A" on an exam, I feel happy and proud of myself. If I lose a game of basketball, I feel sad or angry. While things in our country do affect us, they don't really affect us directly. The thing that most directly affects us in terms of government is laws, but we never feel patriotism when it comes to laws. If the US were to win a war, we would feel pride and patriotism, even if we weren't directly involved in the war. We have a day to remember fallen soldiers, Memorial Day, but we don't have a day where we remember people all over the world dying of hunger and disease. So I'll ask once again, why do we feel patriotism?
I believe that the reason we feel patriotism is because every human being has a need to belong. I mentioned a similar idea in my post on repetition. We were made to need each other and to need to belong. One group where we can feel like we belong is our country. When our country celebrates, we feel like part of that celebration. We like to be associated with our country because we feel that need to belong. We were created to be together and united. That is why I love the name of my country, "The United States". I also really like one of our sayings, "United we stand, divided we fall." How true is that statement.
Why does this matter? Does patriotism matter at all? I think patriotism is good to a certain extent, because it produces people that want to serve their country. More importantly, it is a good indication of our human nature. It reveals our need to be part of something, something more than just ourselves. We need to belong somewhere. Where do you belong?
-Smart (in America)
I was reading the part that said, "So I'll ask once again, why do we feel patriotism?" and I internally thought, "It's cause humans have the need to belong."and then you said that haha.
ReplyDeleteGreat minds man, great minds.