Quote Originally Posted by ThisYouWillDo View Post
Right ... now I'm really out of my depth! But, although I cannot deny that what you say seems convincing and logical, I don't accept it . There seeems to me to be a basic flaw in your argument. Nations do exist and people are proud to belong to them. Unless you say they are all romantic freeloaders like me, then it takes some explaining, doesn't it?

TYWD
I think that the problem is that I'm just not good enough at this. I just suck too much at explaining philosophy. It's not being a freeloader. It's identifying with an image that doesn't exist. Strictly speaking it doesn't really matter to me who or what you identify with. But there's a communication gap between what it means to you and other Scots. So what is patriotism if you can't agree on that basic thing?

On top of that I think it doesn't really help world politics and can be dangerous when in the hands of morons, (ie neo nazis and other racist nationalists).

But I'm not sure how I could say this any better so I'll just bow out and hope someone else here is better than me at this. Please help