Is patriotism just a form of Stockholm syndrome? Perhaps some sort of rationalization?
Most countries only exist out of the interest of organizations that deal in people known as governments, not out of a intrinsic nationalistic sense of belonging and fraternity.
When you "fight for your country" you're never actually defending the interests of the whole group that constitutes the country, only of the ones in charge.
I'm not in favor of anarchy, but the current understanding of what a government is or should be is completely fucked. Where once it served the population, it nows rules them as a monarch would, and they obey unconditionally, for they know no different as it's their belief that a government has inherent power , as if given by nature itself, over those within its "possession". This is hardly any different from the old days of the divine right of kinds, where power is unquestioned, and merely doing so is cause for ostracism and penalties.
We're fucked.
>>52390957
M-monkeys?
B-brazil is this y-you?
>>52390994
No, I'm not a country.
>>52390957
>Where once it served the population
are you sure you are brazilian?
>>52390957
i cant think of a time in modern era where government has once served its population; even back to babylon
tribal council maybe, but beyond that with rising population government needs to withhold and have more inherent power, because basically people dont know what is right for them in most cases of a stable, nondictatorial government
>>52390957
I mostly agree with you, but I would like to point out that the concept "state" isn't the concept "people", and well understood patriotism is towards your people, a collective of individuals that form a primarily homogenous group of shared origins and culture.
The state is just a construct to rule and enforce laws over a number of people within a given territory.
>>52390957
Patriotism is a quest for the unearned where one seeks to take pride in the achievements of others based only geographical proximity. Besides racism it is the most primitive and crude form of collectivism.
That being said, being more trusting towards and having a sense of familiarity towards people of similar core beliefs, language and cultural norms is only natural and is, at least from an evolutionary standpoint, beneficial to us. The bastard child of this rational preference for people that are similar is patriotism. Its birth forced by war mongering brutes in order to serve their own interests.
