Friday 8 June 2012

Proud to be British?

Am I "proud to be British"?
What is it about my intrinsic "Britishness" that I am meant to "be proud" about?
Can someone explain?


Am I proud to "be British", as if by mere dint of the accident of my birthplace I should be?
Why? What did I do to achieve it?!
Scraping the barrel to feel ‘pride’ in the accident of one’s birthright or other random association is ridiculous, demonstrative of arbitrary tribalism at its basest.

Nationalism is the domain of imbecilic racists and jingoists.
Can one ever feel pride over something one had literally no hand in?!
Would anyone posing the question care to explain how the analogy might break down if I were to say, appallingly 'I am proud to be white'?!

Am I "proud to be British"?
Being proud of oneself for the entirely passive fortuity of being born in Britain is of course a different issue from being proud of Britain1.
While it is a great country, frankly that has little to do with any one person...and I certainly have contributed little to it so far, so why should I be proud of it?
In fact as far as my country goes, essentially all I have ever done is selfishly take an inordinate amount of money from it to fund my education, all the while benefitting lavishly from its rule of law, liberal values and free healthcare.
Though despising the nationalistic pride of chance regional identity, I love my country and perhaps I hope to actually contribute something to it one day that I may actually be able to say I am "proud" of the country I helped build.
As far as I can see, the people with the greatest claim to such a pride for the entire country as a meaningful entity are our law-makers and our soldiers.

Am I "proud to be British"? No...I am grateful



1At the risk of oversimplifying perhaps nationalism and patriotism could be delineated as I am proud to be British vs. I love Britain.

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