Quote Originally Posted by Andres View Post
"Real Americans" also smells like nationalism, which I'm currently allergic to, but that has more to do with the current situation in my own country than anything else. Politicians here are so occupied with (partially self-created) Walloon-Fleming contrasts that nothing in this country moves or get done. A couple of years ago, I would have played along with that, but the more things continue like this in my country, I'm slowly entering the stadium of complete apathy. It's just too absurd to keep getting worked up about. But that's food for a different thread, one on Belgian politics. But I won't open one myself, because, as I said, I'm slowly getting to the past caring - apathy stadium.
I think the importance of patriotism is that it is an antidote to apathy...the caricature of it presented by politicians is often on the sickening side however.