Quote Originally Posted by thisyouwilldo View Post
I'm an Anglo-Scot ... I suppress the English side because I favour the notion of being a Scot. I love the saltire ( a political emblem) snd the red lion rampant (an emblem of the monarchy). But I do not love Scottish politics, nor am I a monarchist. So maybe I'm a simple romantic when it comes to patriotism. I also wear a kilt on occasion ... so maybe I'm a transvestite too.

I have never been called upon to risk life or limb for my country (either of them) and I'm not sure I would want to. Let's put that down as a "Don't Know."

I admit to being ignorant about patriotism, nationalism and all the rest ... and I haven't read Ficht and/or Herder ... I haven't even heard of them. So I cannot comment on their views, or Tom's rebuttal. But history seems to say that Patriots are those who fight for their (embryonic) nation's freedom - e.g., the rebel colonials in America, or the French Resistance in WW2. It also seems that Patriots are always on the right side (i.e., the winning side). Those on the other side are "insurgents" or something. Whatever the truth about that is, it seems to me that Patriots were fighting for ideas and ideals rather than a specific political nation and they united under their flags, symbols and devices AGAINST a common enemy. The nations that emerged - USA in one example, or the umpteenth French Republic in the other, were not necessarily the desired result ... they just happended to be the actual result. Someone ...Washington, or de Gaulle just took over. Where does this get us? I don't know - I'm rambling ....

But I am sure everyone of us perceives him/herself to be a part of the nation s/he belongs to, despite its faults, is proud of its history, and is happy about it.
Scottishness is just a fantasy. It's your hopes of what Scotland is to other Scottish people. It's you projecting yourself upon something bigger. You are no longer just you. You are part of a greater whole, which makes you in turn more powerful. Mentally it increases your perception of your own power. So I understand it's lure.

But it only works if you don't analyze it. It's works much the same way as the Christian concept of heaven. It's the dream of the place that is important, not the place itself. Because it doesn't exist as a fully formed concept. I'm not talking about denying it's existence, but that it doesn't exist as an idea. Nobody has formulated what heaven is but all Christian people still seem to want to get there. They fill the symbol heaven with as many positive values they can. But it's different for each person.

What is Scottishness? What sets Scots apart from English, or any other nationality? All you get left with is a collection of symbols, that in turn have to be loaded with value by each person just as the symbol Scotland itself.

The identity of a nation can only be defined by what it is not, (just as a person he he, but let's not get in too deep). You cannot say anything about unique characteristics of Scotland, but you can say what they are not, (ie English).

What all patriotic people do, but which patriotic fanatics vocalize is this necessary mental step. You need to stress differences between your and other nations, in your head. These don't exist so they have to be fabricated. What tends to happen is that you make your own nations people as better people than other nations. This is just pulled right out the ass. It's never based on anything. It's just the same hopes and dreams of what Scottishness is.

I'm not talking about cultural traits. As we all know there's always various tendencies of behavior in various regions of the world. But they are not confined by a nations border. And they also vary a lot between classes and peoples jobs.

I liked they old mental idea of a nation. Before Fichte and Herder fucked it up. Where a nation was the private property of a King. France was the property that belonged to the Bourbonne family. Sweden was Bernadottes or Vasa before it. It was completely arbitrary. A war was just one family against another. A family which the common soldier had no relation, and they had no relation to their fellow soldiers, and they knew it. Being patriotic for anything greater than your home village was unheard of.

Any social construct which is in place only to keep stupid people in line, I object to. I like the truth. Patriotism is just another layer of bullshit to make it even harder to see the truth. I've got nothing against national unity, but we should realize that we're no better than anyone else. There's nothing special about our country or it's borders to be proud of. It's completely arbitrary. Maybe you should ask yourself why you need that crutch? Why do you need to blow yourself up like that?

If Sweden would go to war against another nation I might fight. But I'd evaluate what the conflict is about before I'd join. Just one against the other isn't good enough. I don't even back my friends up in every situation. If they've on purpose picked a fight they can't handle, they're on their own.

Here's a suggestion. Stop being proud of Scottish history, and start being proud for yourself. Take pride in what you personally have achieved. You know in your heart that taking credit for other peoples work is not cool, right?

BTW, my family is of Scottish descent.