Does Patriotism Make Sense?

[VetLegion]

People evolved from monkeys and for millions of years we were hunter-gatherers who always moved in search of game and edible berries.

Human psyche evolved to suit that lifestyle. Living in relatively small groups of hunters and migrating.

Sedentary lifestyle which we practice today is only a couple of thousand years old.

Therefore I ask: does patriotism make sense?

Obviously it exists as an emotion, people do get attached to land. But how strong should this emotion objectively be?

If hunter-gatherers of old had been too connected to some particular area, they would have starved when they spent its resources.

I conclude that biologically, patriotism should be a rather weak emotion. Most of it is probably learned, not least from the state propaganda machine (I always wanted to use that phrase ). On a scale of things to which people should feel attached to, homeland should be pretty low.

I'd add that loving your people is another matter. Compared to patriotism it actually does make sense biologically.

What do you think?

[Wiglaf]

What a retarded thread. I have seen some real loser threads, this one just plain sucks more than any of them.

[Wiglaf]

Also, since you're probably interested in anthropology: Anthropology sucks. I have seen some very insecure anthropologists, whining about how biology and anthropology are so distinct.

Well, they are distinct in one way at least. Biology is worthwhile, anthropology is a subset of biology that is jack useless as its own science. If it's not to late, switch to a real degree.

[Wezil]

I suspect patriotism in its primitive form was loyalty to the group (not land).

[Zkribbler]

You assuming that partiotism is directly at a hunk of land rather than the people who live on it. I always viewed patritism as an us-against-them concept:

"We Americans are better than everyone else because we have the 4th of July, and George Washington, and because one of our teams always wins the World Series."

[VetLegion]

What a retarded thread. I have seen some real loser threads, this one just plain sucks more than any of them.

Since you just bumped my thread from behind, can I have your credit card number?

[Wezil]

Bad day Wiggie?

[Pekka]

From an individual point, it makes very little sense.

From government point of view, it makes the game.

[Wiglaf]

Bad day Wiggie?

Just don't feel like wasting time on this terrible, terrible topic. It is conceivably the worst, most inane one I have ever seen.

Does anyone really need to read that patriotism probably wasn't about national boundaries, back when people didn't even have countries?

No. This is dumb and so is your science.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
You assuming that partiotism is directly at a hunk of land rather than the people who live on it. I always viewed patritism as an us-against-them concept:

Yes. In Croatian we have two words:

"domoljublje" - love of homeland
"rodoljublje" - love of one's kin/folk

And also "patriotism" which we inherited from Latin but which I always translate as "love of homeland" rather than "love of nation".

[Wezil]

Wiggie - I think you made that point already.

[Lancer]

If patriotism doesn't make sense to the people of one nation the people of another to whom it does make sense will eat their lunch. However I agree, its kind of absurd.

[Pekka]

It's not patriotism that defends people, it's people who defend people!

This message was brought to you by national partiots associaton.

Maybe waht you meant to say is that patriotism is the reason people often try to eat the food of other people. For patriotism, see Hitler.

I win .

[Shrapnel12]

Patriotism is just part of our natual desire to belong as part of a group. It make us feel safe from foreign dangers both real and imagined. Like anything it can be good or bad. It's good for morale of the nation to take pride in something you feel you are an active part of. It's good for people to unite in the face of adversity like in WWII. What good is all the infighting we are doing now? More and more people are dying while nothing gets done.

OTOH, patriotism probably also comes from our fear and hatred of things different. It's probably similar to the emotion that creates bigotry. Patriotism goes too far when we see all outsiders as the enemy. Germany and Japan during WWII are good examples of this.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
Just don't feel like wasting time on this terrible, terrible topic. It is conceivably the worst, most inane one I have ever seen.

Why don't you just f*ck off then and do everyone a favour?