Patriotism is amongst the most hollow concepts ever

1. Why does patriotism start and end with a country! Why aren’t you overtly protective of your home or Society or area or city or state or continent or planet or solar system or galaxy or universe? Why just one geographical denomination over all others! Don’t you feel Saurashtrian when in Ahmedabad, Gujarati when in Punjab, Indian when in Dubai and South-Asian when in the US! And then why should males not feel pride for and fight for their gender alone! Why should Muslims not feel extra proud and assertive of Islam alone! Why should all humans not chest-thump their existence to all other living organisms! Where, on what identity does your assertion begin and where does it stop! Interestingly, a lot of us also get over-aggressive on some of these other identities, hence resulting in more conflict. So just get this in your head — All are basically dividing you further.
2. Did you choose to be born in a specific place? You were born where your mother was at the time of birth. Those are the facts of the matter!
3. A country is a piece of land, just like all other pieces of land everywhere on the planet. Just that they have been now marked with boundaries by specific people. Remember that the boundaries have been different in the past and will be in the future as well.
4. You may say there is a lot of piled up history and hence emotion with people having fought for your country. So? Do you understand those contexts and struggles? Do you support them? Wars were even fought between kingdoms, which may now be states. So why not equally exaggerated state-bound-patriotism!
5. Where does the patriotism go when it comes to not spitting, littering, being corrupt, being dishonest, settling abroad and so on!
6. We remember patriotism when our School forces us to comply with Republic Day or Independence Day rituals, then when some of our Social Studies textbooks mention certain historical incidents, then before a movie, then when India plays cricket and lastly when politicians resort to their jingoism! How many of these are things you chose to do! Rather strange if you are so patriotic by choice, right!
7. Do you realize how interconnected this globalized world now is! You are reading this on a site made outside on a technology made outside on a device most likely made outside or funded outside, with several components from outside. Your clothes, your vehicles, parts in your home and office, so many things come from elsewhere. So many of your things go abroad! Still shouting ‘My Country, my country’ not just makes you dangerous but also foolish!
8. Why is patriotism now associated more with thoughts such as wars and taking offence! I thought it was supposed to be a beautiful, positive emotion for the good of a place and its people!
9. Have you thought about the relation between a person entering the army and their financial class! Their needs for financial security, their regional traditions and so on! Not all terrorists are religious bigots, a lot of them are just poor. Similarly, not all army-men are patriotic heroes. Stop burdening them with your temporary adrenaline, just let them be, its their lives at stake! And if and when they say something about the poor conditions in which they live, listen to them and don’t suppress them.
10. Thought about how much money is made by selling patriotism? Defence equipment, movies, sports, memorabilia and so much more. Thought of how many people have come to power by playing on your emotions? Thought of how many people have died because of this foolishness!

A borderless planet is the most beautiful stage you can attain! A borderless inter-spacial human inhabitation is the ambition of so many humans going into the future! What makes the US a place most people aspire to move to, besides its economic prowess, is majorly its mix of people and cultures co-existing as peacefully as human beings can today! That is what so many people are fighting to protect in a Trumped America!

So instead of being an ass and being puppeteered further, just be peaceful, responsible, compassionate and try contributing back wherever you are! Be grateful wherever you get something good and try to stay away from the bad wherever you are. That’s it!