Nationalism has a lot to answer for. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with being proud of your heritage (even if others don’t see it as something to be proud of) or with being proud of who you are. It’s when that nationalistic pride starts to equate to “I’m better than you because I’m American” (or English or whatever nationality you happen to be) that I have issues with it.
Just because you were born in the USA (or anywhere else) doesn’t make you better than someone born in Somalia for instance. It just makes you luckier in that particular instance. And guess what? That’s an accident of birth. You haven’t done anything to deserve or achieve that status. So why do so many nationalities look on themselves as being superior? This is a particularly American trait – I come across it every day over here. But there are others. I have lived in many countries and whenever I come across the “I’m better than you” nationalist zealots the truth is usually just the opposite. The only ones they’re fooling are themselves.
Before you start thinking that you’re superior to others because of where you were born consider where your country stands globally as regards ranking for any category which you think is important. Education, pay, health care, crime, longevity etc. etc. I promise you that you’re in for a surprise. And for some a shock.
We are all in this together and it’s about time that we all started thinking of ourselves as human beings first and (insert nationality here) second.
Having been born American I know that from birth we really are indoctrinated that “this is the best country in the world,” and so forth. I wonder why that has been the tradition here and I wonder if they do stuff like that in other places. Do you know? I mean as far as I know, the Scandinavian countries have the most money per capita, do they teach their children “we’re the best because we’re the richest?”
It just makes no sense to me…
Unfortunately most Americans I have come across (not all, but most) have or display this sense of overbearing self-worth and/or self-importance. That is the dictionary definition of arrogant. For those that are interested the word arrogant comes from the latin arrogare – to arrogate. Arrogate means to improperly claim for oneself without right. The whole thing speaks for itself really. And no, the other countries I have lived in or been to manage to have national pride without the attached arrogance and supposition of superiority.