On Sat, 25 Feb 2017 09:50:38 -0800 (PST), "Chris.B"
wrote:

On Saturday, 25 February 2017 15:35:31 UTC+1, Chris L Peterson wrote:

Regrettably so. The inclination to patriotism is one of the things
that may lead to our demise.

Patriotism is one of the most absurd notions ever to be invented by man.

I think it is less invented than it is innate. We evolved tribalism,
and patriotism is just tribalism taken to an extreme. Like other
evolved innate traits (racism, xenophobia, various cognitive biases)
we are capable of largely overcoming them intellectually. Far too few
people make that effort or have the necessary education, however.

A weak sort of patriotism, where we support (and criticize) our own
country because it's in our own best interest to do so makes sense.
The sort of rabid patriotism, even nationalism, that spawns crap like
the Pledge of Allegiance, or the attitude that one's own country is
the best in the world, or that we have any obligation to take up arms,
is very dangerous these days. We aren't little tribes competing for
who gets the waterhole anymore.