Pride should stem from good personal decisions or accomplishments given one’s situation and life circumstances. Being born somewhere isn’t a decision nor an accomplishment.
I would have expected to agree with you, but in thinking it through, I am proud of things I didn’t do, but not for myself, if that makes sense. I’m proud of my mom for getting through grad school with a small child (my sister, I wasn’t even born yet), and I’m proud of my dad for quitting drinking a decade before. Those are both very difficult things and I feel positive about them in a way that feels similar to how I feel when I understand a new aspect of my field and the same as how I feel when my niece learns a new thing. I would call it more of an indirect pride, I guess.
I can see extending that to more distant ancestors, especially if there’s been a consistent threat and various ancestors were instrumental or inspirational against that threat. It’s not a requirement to feel any sort of way about your forebears, but I don’t think it’s out of line to feel pride or shame. I also don’t think it really makes a difference if you’re blood related to the people or just culturally related (or anywhere in between), so I guess it would apply to a culture at large as well (generally geographically related).
You can be proud about your country. You can be proud about everything that makes your country special. Your food, your traditions,… Why shouldn’t you.
Yeah, if you’ve got no own accomplishments to be proud of, I guess you can do that.
Sorry you are from a miserable area that has nothing to enjoy and take pride in. I’m from St. Louis originally, and despite it’s many faults, history of racism, and 2 centuries of shooting otself in the foot i still am proud to be from there. The sports teams are my favorite, the Arch is a beautiful monument, and the free services such as the zoo, Art Museum, and Muny theater are all amazing municipal achievements that took the whole community to accomplish.
You can be proud of where you are from and be open about the faults and problems of that place. Civic pride isn’t blind nationalism.
Because you did nothing to create any of that. Appreciating one’s country especially certain aspects of it seems like a good idea. Being proud of it makes no sense. Most countries have some ugly shit in their past. Proud of that too? Not sure you get to pick and choose.
There’s nothing that necessitates that you can only be proud of things you have personally done.
I think the problem is that people conflate being proud of others with themselves. They take on the achievements of others as their own.
This dude was from my place and was great so therefore I’m great.
This is what nationalists, fascists, racial supremacists and other extremists do on the regular. They have no achievements of their own to be proud of so they have to steal somebody else’s.
There are two sides to it.
If a childhood friend of yours grows up to be a skilled athlete, you can be proud that someone with a shared downtrodden background as yourself has excelled: it’s a shining example to the world that it can’t oppress all of us, and there is a sense of genuine communal solidarity in it.
That being said, if you come from a pretty majority background with plenty of opportunities, and you take communal pride in your friends achievements, then there is nothing really won. The world was never trying to keep your community down, your friend just did well and you should be happy for him and that’s about it.
Yep. People watching the Olympics while being obese sitting on a sofa eating big macs with extra cheese. The athletes did all the hard work, and the audience at home take the pride for whatever reason.
Humans have not evolved beyond tribalism. They still think in terms of borders instead of the planet.
