Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
This is an example where pride for country does not have to do with comparison, superiority, or racism.
I wanted USA to win more than anything in the world for those short moments, but I knew in my mind that Germany had a stronger team that year. That just made me wish America could have won more. However, when it was all over the better team win, and our team knew it. Then I was proud our team lost but didn't lose their honor as gentlemen players. Again no sense of national superiority.
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I don't get patriotism, personally. People in the Uk aren't really patriotic. I and many others may love my country, but it's in the same kind of way you love an old pair of really comfy pants; it's a familiar and nostalgic fondness- unthinkable to deface it or throw it away, but at the same time, you're not going to mount it on the wall for all to see. It's just pants. Similarly we may wax lyrical on how much we ~love~ it, but you'd also willingly admit that it's seen better days and with a kind of embarrassed ironic amusement point out the shabby fraying edges and patches. And just like you'd think someone who made shrines to old pants was crazy, people who are greatly patriotic are generally booed and looked down on and avoided.
We get huffy and indignant when people insult the UK or mock it, and god forbid anyone dare try laying hands on it uninvited, that's just NOT on, and that's deeply personal too, but in general conversation, it's seen as silly to get worked up over it too much. Again, like getting overly proud and show-offish... of your old pants.
For some undoubtedly, British patriotism is ALL about comparison, superiority, or racism, but for most I think we spend so much time pointing out the crappy bits of our own country to each other(and having them pointed out by others), and yet -still- loving it, when a Brit criticizes someone else's country, it's not about proving we're better, it's about rationalizing that our old pants country's flaws are pretty equal to everyone else's so it's all ok. That and the national love of kicking soap boxes out from under people.
TL;DR- I think you can be proud and show a love of your country without being 'patriotic' per se, or thinking your better than others. TBH, most Japanese people i've met who were "omg, Japan is awesome, I love it", were saying so from the viewpoint of "I want to share it with you, I think you'll love it too!" not "and your country is crap in comparison".