Personally I think football is boring to watch and promotes hooliganism, violence and racism. Professional players are paid much more money than they deserve, the fans are exploited at their expense and the media encourages young people to idolise football stars, some of whom are drunks, drug addicts and adulterers. But that’s as maybe…
The point I would like to make is that there is more sinister underlying issue with patriotism. What value is patriotism? The usual answer is that it gives people an identity. Granted, psychologically and perhaps socially, we crave an identity to be ‘part of a group’. The structure of the current world, split into it’s discrete countries, offers each of us an identity which we do not have to work for. I’ve heard people who were born in Britain and moved to America still call themselves “British”. In what way are they ‘British’? Is it just a label to define which country they were born in, or is there something more? Many would maintain that there is some sort of ‘British culture’ which people can be attatched too.
This is where, I think, the problem lies. What benefit can we gain from attatching ourselves to our nationalities? There are other groups and identities which are far more definitive. I think the only thing that nationality and patriotism does is create negative vibes. This in turn leads to segregation and hatred and violence. Most major conflicts in the history of the human race have been one “nation” against another. For some reason people believe in attacking an ENTIRE group of people based on the sentiments of a small minority or the politicians in charge. If you asked the opinions of some Israeli’s or Palestinian’s about the current intafada, I’m sure many would say they wish they could just go back to living their lives as normal.
Country divides are a misnomer because they do not say ANYTHING about the people who live in it. What defining character can you say about “the British”? They all speak english? So does half the world. We are all individuals (i’m not!). We have our own morals, our own beliefs which cannot be generalised into one national ideal just because it is easier in discussion. Yes, of course it is easier to say “America did this” and “America thinks that” but what exactly are you talking about when you say “America”. Most of the time it will be the actions of the government in charge which is definitely not a representation of 100% of the population.
Naming countries helps in geography but it does not help in social communication. Why can we not all be, first and foremost, members of the human race. Human rights are most important because we are all human. Of course you can have your own individual identity, because it would be a world where the borders were not the physical land barriers of countries, but 6 billion individual ones, which each define us as our own person. What unites us, is that we are all humans and we all wish to have the freedom to live our own lives.
What about the world cup? Well, football matches can still occur, maybe not in the same way as the world cup, but hey, I’d rather give up a few stupid football games, for the hope of a better world.
