Patriotism make me think "Where are all the crap countries?" Perhaps there is somewhere that just *nobody* is proud to be from...
Flag waving is on the increase here. English sport fanatics have finally noticed that England has a flag and that it's not the Union flag that people used to wave on the odd occasions that people used to get the urge. This is good, because the only group who previously waved the Union flag was racists and now we don't feel bad about it, but it's also bad because flag waving is pretty pointless.
The down side of having a clearly defined nation (a written constitution, a short and well understood history, etc.) is that it does lead to the "love it or leave it" attitude - you know what the "it" is. In an undefined country (and we're undefined in an alarming number of ways) you have to reach a concensus, or at worst sweep the issues under the carpet, and no one's getting worked up over the big idea because we don't have one.
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Flag waving is on the increase here. English sport fanatics have finally noticed that England has a flag and that it's not the Union flag that people used to wave on the odd occasions that people used to get the urge. This is good, because the only group who previously waved the Union flag was racists and now we don't feel bad about it, but it's also bad because flag waving is pretty pointless.
The down side of having a clearly defined nation (a written constitution, a short and well understood history, etc.) is that it does lead to the "love it or leave it" attitude - you know what the "it" is. In an undefined country (and we're undefined in an alarming number of ways) you have to reach a concensus, or at worst sweep the issues under the carpet, and no one's getting worked up over the big idea because we don't have one.