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ltmurnauOkay, so it's a few days late but here it is, From the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
altfriday5:
1. What does "patriotic" mean to you?
The best test of a patriot is and should be their deeds, not their words or symbols. A patriot is someone who contributes to their country, knows about it, and does their best to reinforce its virtues and fix its vices.
[edit: someone who responded to this elsewhere distinguished between nationalism ("my country right or wrong", "love it or leave it", booga-booga-booga) and patriotism, much as I've described it above. The two terms do get run together, and I should have done the same.]
2. Do you consider yourself patriotic? Why or why not?
I consider myself patriotic; I think I always have been though I became more so after I lived overseas for a couple of years, in situations where I talked much more about my country and how things were done here.
I pay taxes, I give to local charities, I stay as informed as I can, I vote every chance I get, I have served voluntarily in the armed forces of my country, and I am proud to be a public servant who can help fellow citizens. But I don't fly flags (or even sew them to my backpack), wear a lapel pin, sing "O Canada" drunk on my lawn on July 1, or talk about it much.
I think Canada has given me a lot, and I think I've given back. I know I am lucky to have been born here, yet I know my country is not perfect. Sometimes I'm ashamed of the stupid things my countrymen and government do and say and I know I should do more to help fix what's wrong.
Does all this make me somehow better than you? Maybe not, but I'd say I have done more, and am more aware, than some. And less than others.
3. When you encounter people from your own country who are vocally patriotic, how do you feel/react?
I'm generally not comfortable around people who are consistently and loudly nationalistic, which I think is what Der Quizmaster is getting at here, since it seems to me to portray insecurity in one's identity.
I've noticed a huge increase in the number of Canadian flags flying, at all times of the year but especially on Canada Day. It seems to be a post-9/11 thing. I think it's rather silly to see someone flying a Canadian flag from their car, as if that proved anything on the streets of Victoria. When I see one, I want to knock on their window and say, "Hey, are you a Canadian? Me too!"
Canada Day used to be a lot less of a drunken party-day, back when it was "Dominion Day"; people went to picnics or friends' barbecues and if they got smashed it was in the backyard.
4. How about when you encounter people from other countries who are vocally patriotic?
It's their business, especially if I happen to be in their country, but I feel vaguely uncomfortable, just as I do at home. See above.
5. Do you change how you communicate your own patriotism or lack thereof depending on where in the world you are?
Obviously, when I am outside of Canada the topic of nationality, and the rather minor and constructed differences between peoples, arises more often and I talk more about Canada and being Canadian. But I don't go out of my way to talk about it, or to advertise that I'm Canadian (more often it's just to point out, of necessity, that I'm not an American!).
altfriday5:1. What does "patriotic" mean to you?
The best test of a patriot is and should be their deeds, not their words or symbols. A patriot is someone who contributes to their country, knows about it, and does their best to reinforce its virtues and fix its vices.
[edit: someone who responded to this elsewhere distinguished between nationalism ("my country right or wrong", "love it or leave it", booga-booga-booga) and patriotism, much as I've described it above. The two terms do get run together, and I should have done the same.]
2. Do you consider yourself patriotic? Why or why not?
I consider myself patriotic; I think I always have been though I became more so after I lived overseas for a couple of years, in situations where I talked much more about my country and how things were done here.
I pay taxes, I give to local charities, I stay as informed as I can, I vote every chance I get, I have served voluntarily in the armed forces of my country, and I am proud to be a public servant who can help fellow citizens. But I don't fly flags (or even sew them to my backpack), wear a lapel pin, sing "O Canada" drunk on my lawn on July 1, or talk about it much.
I think Canada has given me a lot, and I think I've given back. I know I am lucky to have been born here, yet I know my country is not perfect. Sometimes I'm ashamed of the stupid things my countrymen and government do and say and I know I should do more to help fix what's wrong.
Does all this make me somehow better than you? Maybe not, but I'd say I have done more, and am more aware, than some. And less than others.
3. When you encounter people from your own country who are vocally patriotic, how do you feel/react?
I'm generally not comfortable around people who are consistently and loudly nationalistic, which I think is what Der Quizmaster is getting at here, since it seems to me to portray insecurity in one's identity.
I've noticed a huge increase in the number of Canadian flags flying, at all times of the year but especially on Canada Day. It seems to be a post-9/11 thing. I think it's rather silly to see someone flying a Canadian flag from their car, as if that proved anything on the streets of Victoria. When I see one, I want to knock on their window and say, "Hey, are you a Canadian? Me too!"
Canada Day used to be a lot less of a drunken party-day, back when it was "Dominion Day"; people went to picnics or friends' barbecues and if they got smashed it was in the backyard.
4. How about when you encounter people from other countries who are vocally patriotic?
It's their business, especially if I happen to be in their country, but I feel vaguely uncomfortable, just as I do at home. See above.
5. Do you change how you communicate your own patriotism or lack thereof depending on where in the world you are?
Obviously, when I am outside of Canada the topic of nationality, and the rather minor and constructed differences between peoples, arises more often and I talk more about Canada and being Canadian. But I don't go out of my way to talk about it, or to advertise that I'm Canadian (more often it's just to point out, of necessity, that I'm not an American!).
