Comments on: Inventions, National Achievements, and Paper clips

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

People generally are weirdly proud of achievers from their home country, and I say weirdly because it isn’t like they did anything to help. Although personally I find pride in, say, one’s home country’s history pretty weird, because again, it isn’t like you did anything to help, or chose to be born in that particular country. (I suppose a case could be made for justified pride in one’s country as it currently is, since one is helping with that.)

Australia has a habit similar to the US of claiming Australianness for any high achievers who comes too near. In particular, we love to blur the distinction between NZers and Australians, when the NZers do something great. (Like that great “Australian” band Crowded House, or the “Australian” oscar-winning film The Piano which we were all so happy about.)

By: Mike Huxley

Mike Huxley — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mitch, that is perhaps the most long-winded, versed, and eloquent way possible to say “Hey, Norway invented the paper-clip.”. A good read though, and I actually understood most of it, which is a bonus.

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nationalism is certainly something that I have changed my view about over the past few years, first after having lived several years outside of the U.S., and second after having married someone who is not American. Statements that begin with “[Nationality of person making statement] are better because…” just don’t hold water with me like they used to. Perhaps hypocritically I still find myself taking pride in accomplishments of America, (as Matt said, I personally had nothing to do with any of them) but I do find overt displays of patriotism and nationalism somewhat uncomfortable, even embarrasing. And the difference between patriotism and nationalism? Much more blurry to me than it used to be.

By: Kmlawson

Kmlawson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Matt, Derek, and Mike thanks for your comments. Mike, I’m glad you weren’t confused by always long-winded writing. Matt, what you mentioned is a very interesting related phenomena “approximate national pride” born of the achievements of neighboring countries. The best example I saw of this personally was at the Winter Olympics at Nagano. I brought some Japanese friends with me to root for the Norwegian skiier in a cross-country competition. They went all out and painted their faces with the Norwegian flag. Next to us were some blue and yellow dressed Swedish fans who were also supporting their own athlete. When it was clear that the Norwegian or the Italian (I can’t even remember who it was, I’m not a big sports guy) was going to win, the Swedes all pulled out Norwegian flags (they came well prepared) and started to yell in support of their neighbor (an unrelated story but I found amusing joke: when one year the Norwegian athletes won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of some cross country race, with Sweden in 4th, the joke went, “It takes 3 Norwegians to beat one Swede).

Derek, as for your comment on the trouble of defining nationalism vs. patriotism…..<- My answer got really long so I’m posting it as a posting on the blog…