you're right, i don't truly think that all conservative people are less than human - i was angry and venting (haha for once?). but i do think, reguardless of how they've been raised, that anyone who looks out soley for themselves (as i believe most conservative ideaology does) needs serious lessons in how to love and how to feel before they have any chance of becoming any kind of mature adult. because i truly think that that selfishness is extremely infantile.
as for patriotism - who said "patriotism is an infantile desiese, it is the measels of mankind"? i forget, but i have to agree. i'm not saying don't be proud of this country - be proud, because there definately are a lot of posative things about the USA. BUT, two things -
1. i think that it is never acceptable to consider youself an american before you consider yourself a human being. it is one thing to say "america has a lot of good ideas that can do some amazing thins for humanity if they are applied correctly and i feel lucky to be in a place where i have access to so many of those ideas and freedom to exercise so many of those rights." it is a quite another thing to say "so and so bombed the world trade center and we as americans have to band together and support one another." i'm not even saying support the government of their response. i think that it's a mistake to feel an affinity with someone just because you happen to share the same nationality. i strongly believe that creating any kind of exclusive group creates many outcast groups, and that when people are seperated and labeled in ways that they can't control it leads to resentment and preferentail treatment to those within ones own group.
2. it is dangerous to have too much pride in any one thing because that can make you blind to it's faults. the fact of the matter is that no matter how many great rights and priveledges we may have, no matter how good our economy is (although that obviously doesn't apply as much as it could right now), no matter how weel we as a country are doing - those things didn't just happen by chance. american government creates laws and uses force to give us those things to us at a huge cost to the rest of the world. american routinely harms others and profits of all of the harm that they cause, and so i don't think that we can appritiate and praise the things that we have so completely, knowing the cost at which they come.
Patriotism isn't blinding pride. In my opinion, the most patriotic people ever to live in our country were the ones that saw the faults and worked to change them. The problem with patriotism today is that, in the wake of 9/11 (hehe, how often have we heard THAT phrase, huh? :o) patriotism turned from loving our country in a constructive way to an almost psychotic frenzie of flag waving and hatred for everyone of middle-eastern descent. The former, in my mind, is not patriotism. That's the result of anger, frustration and saddness exacerbated by war propoganda. That's not patriotism. I know I'm just talking about semantics here, but like I said, I think the most patriotic people in our country are the ones that have challenged what is wrong. And, when i say, "what's wrong" I don't mean homosexuality or abortion, I mean the dehumanization of blacks, the suppression of women's rights, etc. Patriotism isn't how many flags you have on your car, it is, in my mind, how you stand for your country. And, again, in my mind, you stand up for your country by being a decent person, by challenging what you believe to be wrong and by being a respectable representative of the nation. Just a thought...
As you know, I agree with all of your ideas of what a good person should do and what the united states has done wrong, and I agree that it needs to change, but I don't think that means we need to hate our country for what corporations and greedy people have done. And... it's sad that our entire administration is a part of that corporate america, but hopefully that won't last much longer...
you're right, i don't truly think that all conservative people are less than human - i was angry and venting (haha for once?). but i do think, reguardless of how they've been raised, that anyone who looks out soley for themselves (as i believe most conservative ideaology does) needs serious lessons in how to love and how to feel before they have any chance of becoming any kind of mature adult. because i truly think that that selfishness is extremely infantile.
as for patriotism - who said "patriotism is an infantile desiese, it is the measels of mankind"? i forget, but i have to agree. i'm not saying don't be proud of this country - be proud, because there definately are a lot of posative things about the USA. BUT, two things -
1. i think that it is never acceptable to consider youself an american before you consider yourself a human being. it is one thing to say "america has a lot of good ideas that can do some amazing thins for humanity if they are applied correctly and i feel lucky to be in a place where i have access to so many of those ideas and freedom to exercise so many of those rights." it is a quite another thing to say "so and so bombed the world trade center and we as americans have to band together and support one another." i'm not even saying support the government of their response. i think that it's a mistake to feel an affinity with someone just because you happen to share the same nationality. i strongly believe that creating any kind of exclusive group creates many outcast groups, and that when people are seperated and labeled in ways that they can't control it leads to resentment and preferentail treatment to those within ones own group.
2. it is dangerous to have too much pride in any one thing because that can make you blind to it's faults. the fact of the matter is that no matter how many great rights and priveledges we may have, no matter how good our economy is (although that obviously doesn't apply as much as it could right now), no matter how weel we as a country are doing - those things didn't just happen by chance. american government creates laws and uses force to give us those things to us at a huge cost to the rest of the world. american routinely harms others and profits of all of the harm that they cause, and so i don't think that we can appritiate and praise the things that we have so completely, knowing the cost at which they come.
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As you know, I agree with all of your ideas of what a good person should do and what the united states has done wrong, and I agree that it needs to change, but I don't think that means we need to hate our country for what corporations and greedy people have done. And... it's sad that our entire administration is a part of that corporate america, but hopefully that won't last much longer...
Reply
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