(Written in my first week back in the States)
In the last 24 hours, I have been told four times that "This is the best country in the world," by women who insinuated that to feel otherwise just makes you darn stupid and, well, an evil socialist. I feel like a traveller in a foreign land, like an observer of some foreign culture: American patriotism.
But why? I'm glad I was born in the U.S. I loved growing up here, and when I am here I am happy. I'm proud of some of the things in our past, and some of the things we have contributed to the world. I'm fortunate and I know it. I loved showing off my country to my Norwegian friends last year, to my South African boyfriend this summer. Yet sometimes I'm wondering if I'm setting myself up for the life of an expat, because in a way I feel like I don't belong. Because I believe, more than almost anything, that nationalism should never supersede humanitarianism.
I know that's foolish. There are plenty of people here who feel the way I do - and plenty of people there who don't. (BNP, anyone?) Maybe it's just that two out of the last three years have been spent overseas. And the fact that during Bush's presidency, Americans abroad spent so much time apologising, trying to prove that we ARE great people.
But why is our nationalism and patriotism any different from that of my Greek friend, or my Belgian friend, or my Brazilian friends who love their countries? I suppose it's just more... loaded.
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"Loaded" is right.
You ask about Belgian patriotism, but you could as well ask about Iranian or Nigerian. Each country's policies follow the nationalist who subscribes to them--symbolic condensation, you recall. And, from a Reader Response view, there's no way to stop that. The Bush Era is now as much a part of our patrio-type as the Clinton and Reagan-Bush years before.
That said, two observations, I think. The first is that, in an ideal sense, there's no reason not to have a sense of patriotism or national loyalty. It comes as a natural part of a subscription to democratic responsibility. (In this sense I don't blame those who wantonly display nationalism because of obligation. We should do it by our acceptance of our role--even complicity--in policy.) It's when the patriotism becomes a nationalistic substitution for critical thinking, dissent, and that responsibility to watchdog our democracy where we have trouble.
The other thought is that, because our responsibility and idealism of it isn't easily recognized by non-Americans, we have an additional obligation to step carefully in our rhetorical spaces. If we are sensitive to the extra baggage implicit in our patriotism, we do our international friends a great service: we help remind them (as it is so easy for us to do with others who have pride in their countries) that the people/culture and the government are two separate issues.
I am not a fan of the corruption of the Nepali government, for instance, but I quite easily accept and even warm to the sincere pride my students and friends there show about it. No hesitation. What I recognize is that they have pride in the ideal of their values, the richness of culture. And for these, too, I think Americans can be proud.
Miss you, as always, my American friend.
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