I wish I could have National Pride

I really do. Patriotism is in some ways great but I just don't. Obviously a lot of people are with me. I don't know if you agree but America is a shell of what it once was. Of what it was once seen as.

America was at one point looked up to right? Now we are looked down at.

I can't help but ask where we went wrong. It just makes me so mad!

I'd like to buy the propaganda. I'd like to believe the offical story, but I can't turn my head from how corrupt the system is.

I don't know if the lack of trust for government came from being on ATS since I was ten (lurked for a long time. like a very long time) or if it's just because the government can't be trusted.

lol

Edit: Actually now that I think about it I was probably around 12. But still.

reply to post by drew1749


"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"

- Howard Zinn

reply to post by drew1749


patriotism is one of the great motivators governments use for control. we see the people in our government bury this country so far in debt it's beyond grasping while sending our military women and men to foreign soil they shouldn't be on. what's to be proud of?

i can understand why so many choose to ignore things and bury their head in the sand. there are all sorts of organized well-funded groups trying in earnest to make change for the better that are as effective as the 'war on drugs'. it's like urinating in the ocean. it may feel good but it doesn't make a bit of difference.

at least we can do some things that affect our own lives and the lives of some we come in contact with. you can take pride in being a good person, enlightening others to the real news of the world, and in preparing for come-what-may.

remember: don't let what you can't do get in the way of what you can do.

It is, I believe, unrealistic to call for an end to nations and nationalism. Because we are not, in the final analyisis, one big family as human beings. We cannot sleep in the wild (well, most of us...); we need walls and roofs. A nation is like these walls and roofs.

So calling for the end of nations strikes me like calling for the end of disease, or floods and fires and earthquakes: A nice sentiment to be sure, but not one that has much of a meaningful relationship with reality.

So if we cannot leave nationhood behind, what then? We are all responsible for making the nations we live in as humane and just as possible. On this score, the American people have failed abysmally.

"But you know something? It's never to late to get it back." Lester Burnham, American Beauty

reply to post by Never Despise

AHHH I love Lester!! what a great quote - Star for you!

on topic so I don't get a sticker

Yeah my government embarrasses me.

I'm about as sure of the term "patriot" as most people are of the term "freedom".

I am free. But I'll always be free no matter where I live. I will not always be proud of my country.