Though I do believe in gods, I would agree with every thing else you stated about religion.
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Originally Posted by GoNative
Patriotism/nationalism are based on pride. And pride really is a bad thing. Why? Because you cannot have pride without comparison. It's impossible to have pride without comparison. So the more proud you are of something (say your country) the more you start to believe that your country, your people and your culture are better than others. It should be obvious then how this translates into intolerance of others.
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I disagree with the depiction of patriotism/nationalism. The two terms should not be interchangeable, as they have differing connotative meanings. Patriotism is that pride that exists regardless of the existence of any other country or people. It does not require comparison.
Nationalism, with it's negative connotation since the 1940's of extreme, blind, irrational, arrogance does indeed thrive on the condemnation of all others.
The crime is that all too often nationalism hides behind a banner of patriotisman and perverts a noble sentiment into something that corrupts the masses.
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Multiculturalism can and does work. I believe in Australia on the whole it has been very successful and has played a big role in making the country as strong as it is today. Are there still racists in Australia? Sure plenty of them. Are there some problems with integration of new arrivals? Sure there's plenty. Thing is what we've found in Australia is give a couple of generations and people mostly integrate (not assimilate) just fine. As long as you don't suppress their freedom to be who they are, to practice their cultural and beliefs within the laws of the country and give them every opportunity to prosper with the same rights of any other citizen of the nation then they generally integrate with few problems at all.
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Given the history of bigotry that still persists in Australia, it would be best to drop this example. I know of no Aboriginal, Japanese or Korean person who would accept this depiction of the country. Hate crimes persist in the major cities today and there is little evidence of any major effort on the part of the government to address the problem.