I believe heritage is something to be treasured...I mistrust so called "cosmopolitans" abit...people without roots and homes....not my cup of tea.
I trust people who prove they can be trusted. Trust and respect should be something you gain through hard work, through being a helpful or even useful person, and all the things you contribute to your environment?
I mean, if someone doesn't have or lost track of her or his roots, that's not always their fault?
If you look at the world's history, and go back to the earliest days of humanity, you can see that all humans once travelled around, met, exchanged culture, beliefs, traded, and really most of them were hunters and nomads..
So basically we all came from the same continent, only much and much later people settled and slowly began to forge territories, which later became larger domains, which eventually became the countries we now live in..
My point is, you're not that much different from me or anyone else just because you were born in Germany?
Give it some thought then.. Suppose that you would have a family of your own, and tomorrow Germany was going to be at war again, and they would lose the fight and some foreign force occupied Germany. (Suppose!) Suppose they would persecute a certain group of people and you happened to belong to that group of people. (Suppose!)
Suppose you would flee to America to ensure the future and safety of your children. (Which is honourable.) Your children would slowly lose their roots, and become what you call Cosmopolitans. And finally, ask yourself this question;
Would you see yourself as a totally different person if you were forced to live somewhere else? Would you see yourself as a person who should be mistrusted just because he had to move?
Why must you mistrust someone just because they are Cosmopolitian, Bratwurst Boy. You stated you don't care to live that way, and that's fine, but others like it and have no problem with it.
So why do you think you've got some right to lecture us what we should think ?
She's not lecturing any of you Grzegorz. She basically said: You have the right to live your life just like others have the right to live theirs. Nobody should tell eachother what to think, because that should be something you can do for yourself being a grown man (Or woman!) and all..
Nationalism in itself isn't something wrong as long as it's about treasuring and securing ones people past, present and future, then it's a good and healthy thing! It get's disturbing if it becomes a kind of competition with others...I agree...that to often ends in blood and tears!
I think we should look at the past and learn from it, and not bring the past back to the future. Everything changes. Always. If things never changed, people in general wouldn't have invented so much..
I think it's good to treasure the past, but I think we can all be proud (Or sometimes ashamed!) of major breakthroughs and human achievements throughout our history..
I'm just as proud of a German person who invents a nature-friendly car than I would be of a Polish person who would do the same..(Or any other nationality for that matter!) All that should matter is, that it's a positive change and we should be proud of anyone who does something positive for all of us? If we'd all work together and shared our expertise we could probably invent and develop a lot of useful technology and probably much faster..
I'd rather be proud of a single person who can prove he deserves my admiration than to be proud or even admire a group of people who didn't prove anything yet and who sometimes seem to think that pride, respect or even admiration is their birthright?
Respect and pride are like salary, you have to earn all of that through the hard work you deliver, or through the actions you perform.
That seems to be the only difference in thinking between us? Also I want to add this: If you mistrust people because of things they cannot help themselves, then those people will feel your mistrust. They will doubt, and they will in turn, start to mistrust you..
You could say that this is where all the fear, lying and decieving starts. Simply because we think we're so much different from eachother while infact, we all have the same basic needs, instincts and emotions.
In addition: I like football, especially when the national team plays. It connects people, and gives them something to be proud of. So yes, I too can feel a bit of nationalism and what it means sometimes, but it shouldn't ever be a reason to mistrust, or to hate someone else for.
I know some guys who will shout at any German. I never did this. I've made some jokes (I admit I have a bad sense of humour sometimes!) but really, that's it. You'll never see me judge someone else based on skincolour or nationality..
In the end, if you go back long enough, we all have the same roots, we all have the same origin, and we all have the same mother.. The world was called Gaia, it was one continent without boarders or even nationalities.
So it seems history will repeat itself? I think we will globalize at some point, and I also think there's no need to be afraid of that..
Copernicus was a great mind, and he probably was a freethinker, (With the Church persecuting almost anyone who didn't agree with them that the world was flat along with some other ridiculous ideas.) and above all else, he was a human being, so why can't we just admire the man for what he achieved, instead of admiring him only for where he came from?
You don't really need someone else to feel better about yourself. You can do that yourself, just by being the someone you would like to be.
That's what being a freethinker means. That's what being a cosmopolitan means. So treasure our differences, because our differences make us stronger, our differences make us more versatile and very able to adapt to anything that is being thrown at us as a people..
Maybe we should all go back to our roots and pass the peace pipe around for a while?
