Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNative
I think over the years MMM, especially in the West we've come to use the pride word overly much. As we grow up most of us are told to be proud of ourselves, proud of our school, proud of our house, proud of our work, proud of this and proud of that. It's become so that we we should take pride in almost everything we do, even the most mundane of things. Even in christian countries like the US in which pride is one of the 7 deadly sins, we see pride being promoted aas one of the great virtues! So yes pride can be completely innocuous. My point though is that it can also be a slippery slope, not that it is always a bad thing but it can be the catalyst for many bad things. It's a matter of degrees. I just always get a little worried when governments try and stir up patriotism. Often precedes them doing some pretty bad stuff in my experience and helps to reduce criticism because any criticism is then labelled unpatriotic.
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I agree with what you are saying 100%, GoNative. I am not concerned with Christian values, but understand the thinking behind the Seven Deadly Sins and for the most part agree. Being proud doesn't always have to be a negative though. Should I not be proud of my father, the war veteran? Should I not be proud of my son, the football star?
In terms of government programs, you really hit the nail on the head. In the US, the so-called "Patriot Act" was called that, but it was (and is) a bill that allows the US government unprecedented access to things like phone and email records without the usually required warrants. If you don't support it, you must not be a patriot, right? Genius!