Absurdity of Nationalism

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If you expect me to be patriotic, I kinda want a united European nation to feel patriotic for. I can't feel very patriotic for Germany.

But yeah, the concept of nationalism is kinda weird!

I don't see it as natural at all. A nation often has very artificial borders, forcing many different "tribes" to live together regardless of whether they have any other bonds.

Isn't it the called the last refuge of the scoundrel?

The olympics really make it seem repugnant.

Nationalism doesn't just start wars, it also increases competition. Space race anyone?

The Olympics are so silly. I never watched them, don't care, never will care. I don't like sports either though. And, I briefly got into soap operas when I was a kid. Please don't be mean to me, I know I talk too much and get off the topic sometimes. Still, I come here to feel like I'm in a group of some sort. Maybe it's important for humans to connect with others and have a sense of belonging. Watching or playing sports is a way to stand behind something and have other people standing beside you. What I notice about this aspie thing is that I see a lot of contrary ideas taking place within the high functioning autistic person and I wonder if it is a way of being elusive in order to escape friendships. Like I'm here and I want to be friends with someone I can relate to yet, I still feel compelled to annoy people by over talking and contradicting myself. I hate sports because it is so obvious that people rally together for a silly cause when they could be doing something meaningful. Not that I am doing something so meaningful at the moment. I'm too busy battling my own inner dialog and the play field is inside of me.

The olypics, are in my opinion, a celebration of what people can actually do, achieve and complete.
from an AS context, the focus and determination required to achieve and be the best is, a very AS trait.

FEW honest whites would ever say that! If you are non white, and honestly say that, it is because YOU are either:

1. Unsuccessful as any white could be.
2. Don't know about advantages you have been given, and playing the same game.
3. You have a misplaced view of whites, and where THEY are.

HELL, a PRIVATE school is now being sued because they want to teach in English! A Holiday honoring a respected president was REPLACED by one honoring Martin Luther King. Heck, one IDIOT ******WHITE****** once "corrected" me when I spoke about Martin Luther! She added ***KING***! YEAH, like MLK lived hundreds of years ago in Germany and helped unify the nation. But the name was so TIGHTLY ingrained in her mind.

OK, DEVILS ADVOCATE time! I may NEVER pronounce Hindi very well. The very name hindi has a sound that is hard to discern, let alone pronounce. That is even MORE true of chinese! Are you being too strict?

In reguards to the alympic games i do find it absurd.
But i do believe every people has it's right to it's own patch of land somewhere in the world.
I believe multiculturalism and open borders wil destroy unique cultures that developed over thousends of years.
To me nationalism as long as it's peacefull is the greatest thing in the world.
Without it i would just be an empty shadow, a world consumer with the only purpose of making the worlds elite rich.
Globalism is the real evil to me.

I think nationalism is utterly ridiculous. I think I have little in common with most people in my country and the achievements of some of those people mean absolutely nothing to me.

I would like to be stateless if possible. Citizen of nowhere like Nietzsche.

Last edited by corroonb on 14 Aug 2008, 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

[quote="corroonb"]Iand the achievements of some of those people mean absolutely nothing to me.

quote]

interesting observation.
it is a very AS observation where people are treated like objects and, not, people.
not a critiscism, it is normal for you, and me to do this.
while i remain distant from the olympic athletes achievements, much like you, i also watch the olympics with interest.
there is no padding, or fluffing , it is just pure you Vs. me mentality and this is what i got, the athletes get on with it, and it isnt scripted or contrived it is as real as it gets, and i like it.

OP: Are you criticizing nations or nationalism?

Nations are, in my view, mainly maintained to provide a law system. Not all people on this planet want to have the same laws. The alternatives to nations are therefore either to force laws onto some people not wanting them, or living in a world without laws altogether.

If you "create" a nation with several existing tribes in it, these tribes will maybe start to fight each other, out of a range of primitive genetic reasons. I.e. it is not necessarily the "nation" that is the problem, but rather the members of the tribes that cannot make themselves adhere to the benefits of living under one unified nation.

I think one of the reasons for initially taking land by force was to secure food production. In a primitive society people are hunting, and no one cares if the animals are killed to extinction. With property rights, the farmers are rewarded for making inventions that improves efficiency and supply of food.

Today's example: lots of seas and rivers are seeing decreased amount of fish, simply because no one "owns" the seas. We are not seeing any decrease, or extinction, of cows or lambs, of the opposite reason.

I.e: Without nations and property rights: animals (the only food) are killed and all people starves to death. With nations and property rights: farmers produce more food, and mankind survives.

I think there are several cases proving that living in one piece of land IS better than living on another piece of land. (North Chorea: one million people starves to death annually. South Chorea: largest health problem among adolescents is overweight).

An example: In the Swedish Olympic Team, we have athletes from all over the world: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rumania, Chile etc. They are probably performing with better results after having been living in Sweden compared to their native country, due to lack of wars and revolutions, supply of food, better health care etc. I.e, it would be reasonable to assume that Sweden (as an example) IS a better place of the planet to live in (at least when it comes to sports, not necessarily when it comes down to entreprenuership or academic research or a lot of other stuff).

It is not the people that are better in one piece of land or another, it is the institutions, enforcement of laws and human rights etc, that are better in some places.

I can't relate to nationalism either. I'm assuming we're like this because we don't/can't relate to the world like that. I can't relate to sports teams either.

I can be proud of a country or team because of what they are or represent, but not just arbitrarily because they exist, as seems to be normal for the vast majority of humans.

I've never much cared for nationalism either. Last 4th of July I was talked into going to see the fireworks with my family. When everyone stood up (and I continued to lay on the grass) for a song about being proud to be an American...I couldn't help but think how they would all be equally proud to be born on some other landmass and how utterly pointless it all was.