Young Writers Society

ShadowVyper wrote:

Just saw this and it seemed relevant lol

ruuuude


but so true tbh

Let's say the US is mostly portrayed as the best and greatest country in the world and we are all just vassals. Everything revolves around the US. But I strongly suspect that this is only from a political point of view and I also think that this is still a side effect of the Cold War and that the US has to keep their position before the Russians or the Chinese come to power.

Oh, interesting, I expected it'd be more negative haha. There is quite a bit of nationalism here so we get a mix of "we're better than all the other countries" and "this other human literally just trying to survive exists and THEY ARE YOUR ENEMY NOW" and it's just all very tiring lol

It´s only negative in the general public, but I guess I read somewhere (from a book from the 60s) that this is also a thing in the US that people are taught that in school to show they are the best and in Europe, it´s the other way around, be more modest. I could be wrong because the book is from the 60s but the guy (I think Edward T Hall) was already very critical to his nation.

But at least you have nationalism. It´s not so common to see that in Germany. *cough cough history* At least in sports there is a part of being "proud" of your country.

Ahhh yeah that makes sense lol I honestly find it absurd to be proud of the place you happened to accidentally be born. Like, if you are, great! But for me, like, if my parents had been French, then I'd be French? Or Canadian. Or Mexican. Or any other nationality. I feel like it makes more sense to be proud of something I worked to achieve than to be proud of something that happened to me at random.

Exactly!

But countries are actually just groups that come together from a psychological point of view.

Are you more proud of being from a certain state than the US? That´s something at least one can see in Germany, that people have a bit of proudness being from a certain area.

*takes out the popcorn* This is interesting

Do you want to answer the question @Stellarjay?

*takes out fake glasses to look smarter*
I definitely feel a certain pride for being a *insert province name here*. There's something very special and unique about my home. The history is in part very complicated and nasty, but that adds to the level of culture here. Though, I will say this, I have a strong bias to where I live. And it sometimes gets in the way of logical conclusions.
However, I think that everyone has some level of pride for their homeland. Because it's just that. Home. But I think that's just human nature. Like everyone has a certain connectivity to where they grew up/lived and that usually (in my opinion) turns into pride.

Edit: Not a pride necessarily linked to where they grew up. But a pride linked to where they felt the most safe/loved.

That´s true. Even as a German I have a bit of proudness in me, but it is weird to describe, because there is always that time of WWII in the back when just thinking about history. Even if I can say, that Germany has created many great poets, philosophers, etc... there is always that thorn that is like a Black Hole. And I think that kind of proudness is also more the sort of unity there is after the reunification and the language than anything else. I mean I never went somewhere and said to somebody I´m German and I´m proud of it. I guess that´s just a thing we have.

I can totally see your last sentence. I lived only for 8 years in my hometown and grew up afterwards somewhere else, I still have more of a connection to these 8 years than the >13 years in the other village.

Yeah! I totally get that about the history thing. I have the same thing where I'm not proud of the history of my Province. But an important thing to remember is that, that's in the past. Yes it was damaging and it left a scar on the country forever, but the country isn't like that anymore. To the best of my knowledge Germany is doing really well now. And that's what matters. I think it's good to be proud of how much your country has changed. The focus shouldn't be on the past, but on the future.

That may be true.

I think it's good to be proud of how much your country has changed.

I´ve never seen it from that perspective, because there are still some bad things here but yeah, you´re right in some points.

There will always be bad things that happen. There's no running away from that. But it's also important to know that the bad things that DO happen don't reflect your entire country. Just because there are criminals in your country (as do all countries) doesn't mean that EVERYONE is bad.

Thank you. That´s really interesting and true.

MailicedeNamedy wrote:Are you more proud of being from a certain state than the US? That´s something at least one can see in Germany, that people have a bit of proudness being from a certain area.

Mm yeah, I guess I kind of do! The state I'm from usually gets mocked by the majority of the rest of the country for being backward and there are a lot of really nasty, untrue stereotypes that get told about the people of my state. But I was raised with a lot of nationalism/state pride so I definitely used to feel it strongly. And now I no longer have those emotional compulsions my parents tried to instill, and I now recognize there are many objectively problematic things about my home state.

But, still, despite all that, there is a strange sense of comfort when I go back there (I've lived in different states/countries for near a decade now with only short stints back in that state). Like, there's just a certain sort of sub-culture that I forget about until I am able to spontaneously re-integrate into it and be like "wow this is not in fact how I usually behave these days" so it's kind of startling but nice? And then there is a specific dish that is apparently rare everywhere else. It's very easy to prepare and I make it for myself occasionally, but I was very surprised when I left my home state for the first time and it wasn't available to me, because they were literally in every gas station ever where I grew up ahah

So, this is 2 am rambles with Shady, so I'll shut up now lol but ig I do feel more pride about my home state than I do my country -- but even that is a bit of an "eh" these days lol