Proud of Your Nationality: Does patriotism make any sense?
Are you proud to be an American? A Brit? Maybe you’re a proud citizen of Djibouti?
Or perhaps not.
Many of us are proud patriots. We are proud of our nationalities and proud of our countries. We fly the flag of our beloved homeland with zeal, and sing the national anthem with tears in our eyes.
But does any of this make sense? Or is it all irrational nonsense?
There are many who think so.
A friend of mine once said:
‘Those who feel pride in their countries are those whose greatest achievement in life was falling out of their mom.’
Was this friend just a mean spirited cynic? Or is there some truth to be found in his take?
Or is there something both rational and justifiable to be found in national pride?
In other words, is national pride ever justified?
To answer this question, I must first establish what is meant by pride. There are a few different types of pride, and in this article I will explore each type of pride and consider how they might apply to nationality.
1 — Pride as lack of shame
Sometimes, pride can simply be understood as a refusal to feel shame.
Gay pride is a good example of this type of pride.
In the past, LGBT people experienced heinous levels of discrimination and were routinely shamed for their proclivities and behaviours.
Reacting against this systematic shaming, today we have gay pride, during which thousands of LGBT people proudly strut down the streets of major cities, declaring their lack of shame and refusing to hide their identities behind closed doors.
The pride here is not a pride that is bound up in action (the pride an athlete might feel winning a gold medal, for instance), but a pride that stands as a reaction to shame.
This is why we don’t have straight pride rallies. Straight people have never been systematically shamed, thus this type of pride doesn’t make sense for straight people.
It is also why black pride makes sense, but notions of ‘white pride’ make us cringe.
How does pride as lack of shame apply to national pride?
Pride as lack of shame can be justified if one’s nationality is continually put-down, shamed, or discriminated against.
For example, let’s suppose you are Irish, but live somewhere else. In your country of residence, Irish people are belittled, heavily discriminated against, and are given the worst jobs to do.
In the following situation, you and your Irish brethren might well start expressing pride in your Irish identity, as a reaction to such oppression.
2 — Pride through doing
Pride through doing is by far the easiest to grasp. Doing requires some level of effort and often requires us to tolerate uncomfortable feelings.
Thus, we rightfully feel proud when we do something difficult, noble, or worthwhile.
For example, you might feel proud after passing a test, donating to charity, or inventing the telephone.
These examples of pride are bound up in action, and action necessitates some degree of effort. Fortunately as a species we understand that it makes sense to reward effort that leads to some positive result.
We also might feel proud for standing up to a bully, or fighting for our country. Such actions not only cost action, but require courage, that is, they require that we tolerate fear.
So long as sufficient effort is exerted and no diabolical ends are sought, pride through doing is often justified and easily understood.
How does pride through doing apply to national pride?
Simply put, it doesn’t.
This type of pride does not apply here, as being of a certain nationality is not doing.
3 — Pride through being
Pride through being is a little more difficult to justify. And sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.
Proud of being 6ft tall? Proud of being right-handed? Proud of being partial to hotdogs and Doritos?
None of these above examples are bound up in action, none require any effort, and none necessitate withstanding negative emotions. Thus, none of these types of pride are in any way justified.
But sometimes being is bound up in doing. And when this is the case, pride can be justified.
For example, you might be proud of being a police officer. Why? Because being a police officer necessitates certain actions. Being a police officer means fighting crime, arresting criminals, and keeping the community safe. All of these are noble pursuits that require courage, skill, and the application of effort..
Thus, when being implies doing, pride can be justified.
How does pride through being apply to national pride?
This is the type of pride that most people invoke when speaking of their national pride. Patriots will exclaim that they are proud of being American, or proud of being French.
So is this justified?
Well, as mentioned before, pride through being is justified when the being implies doing.
Nationality implies doing when there is a tight sense of national identity, and when being of a certain nationality requires adherence to certain customs, traditions, behaviors, or practices.
For example, one might feel proud to be Italian, because being Italian for them might imply being a good cook and possessing a rich understanding of food. And such things imply action.
Or one might feel proud to be American, because for them being American implies being friendly and optimistic, resolutely defending freedom, and going to church every Sunday.
Further, your nationality might imply that you should tolerate other people’s religions, treat strangers with respect, and cook delicious food on the weekends. These are all actions implied by nationality that people can feel rightly proud of.
However, when one’s sense of national identity is weak, too broad, and requires little from you, it is harder to feel national pride through being. Weak national identity cannot compel any behavior, and thus cannot instil any pride.
As a Brit, I find it hard to feel proud of my nationality, because what it means to be British is not clear, at least not for me. Thus, my Britishness doesn’t impel any measurable actions that could imbue pride.
So when national identity implies worthy actions, national pride makes sense.
4 — Vicarious pride
Vicarious pride is pride felt through another person. It is the pride you might feel watching your favorite athlete winning a gold medal, or watching your daughter graduate from college.
In instances of vicarious pride, the person feeling pride often has some sort of connection with the object of their pride. For example, they might be a relative, an old friend, or from the same hometown. Sometimes, however, there is no connection between the two, but nearly always some sort of connection or affinity is felt.
Feeling vicarious pride for someone close to you is often easy to justify. Often, those close to us are similar to us, and thus we see ourselves in them when we watch them pridefully. Watching our younger brother running a successful business, or seeing our best friend giving a killer stand-up comedy routine makes us feel proud because we see something of ourselves in these worthy people.
Additionally, we might have had influence over the object of our pride. For example, a piano teacher might justifiably feel vicarious pride in watching her student giving a tremendous recital. Some of this pride will be rooted in the fact that the teacher played a role in shaping her student’s abilities.
However, feeling a sense of pride over the success of someone with no connection to yourself is a little harder to justify.
Generally, people justify such pride by identifying with the object of their pride in some way. For example, you might be in no way connected to Michael Phelps, but when you listen to his story and empathize with his struggles, you identify a similarity between the two of you. Thus, when you watch him win another gold medal, you can’t help but feel proud.
How does vicarious pride apply to national pride?
A citizen might feel vicarious pride if their nations have achieved success, recognition, or praise in some field. This pride is likely to be compounded if they feel connected in some way to that success.
For example, a German citizen may feel proud that their home country has been a place of economic stability and prosperity in recent years. This pride might be more acutely felt if that same citizen felt as if they had contributed to that success, perhaps through their own hard work and business success.
Citizens may also feel vicarious pride if they view their nation as a force for good.
This type of pride is sometimes a little problematic, as it is difficult to gauge the goodness of any given country objectively, particularly not the country in which you are living in, and whose media you consume.
Nonetheless, citizens will often feel a sense of pride in belonging to a country that represents values they believe in, and it is not difficult to understand why.
Conclusion
Finally, I would like to state that feelings are never wrong. They simply exist. Whether you feel national pride or not, there is a reason behind it, though it might benefit you to explore if that reason is strong and evidence-based, or built on delusion.
Either way, the subject of national pride is one of great nuance. There are various ways in which one might feel national pride, and such pride is felt in different ways. While it might be tempting to write off national pride as irrational, in reality there are plenty of good reasons why one might choose to wave their country’s flag.
