I don't understand the fuss everyone seems to make about heritage. I can understand the love of history, and the interest in finding out where your ancestors came from. But its this idea about being rabidly defensive about a country you've never visited, or even the country you live in, is totally foreign to me.
Why should I feel allegiance to a nation? I can support a nation's policies or actions, but I've never met this thing called "Canada", so why should I get defensive about people making fun of it? What does being "Canadian" mean? This goes double for my being "Danish" or "Mennonite" or anything else (I'm not entirely sure what all backgrounds my grandmother is from, which really contributes to my confusion over who I should feel proud about)
Maybe I wouldn't see nationalism as such a problem, if it weren't for the fact that it IS a problem. Separatism, war, "my country, right or wrong" (Actually a misquote*, but a lot of people have this attitude) , all these things that spring from that little part of our brains that say: "anyone outside my band is a potential enemy, and can't be trusted". It's hard to argue that there are any benefits to patriotism that outweigh the tragedies.
* "My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right"
Senator Carl Schurz
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