Did you know that Americans are proud of their nation more than our more liberal nations?

Question

SOURCE
World Values Survey
DEFINITION
Percentage responding in surveys that they were not proud of their nationality.
Lifestyle Statistics > Not proud of their nationality by country
VIEW DATA: Totals
Definition Source Printable version
Bar Graph Map Correlations
Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)
#1 Japan: 36%
#2 Germany: 34%
#3 Netherlands: 23%
#4 Switzerland: 20%
#5 Belgium: 18%
#6 Norway: 14%
#7 Finland: 13%
#8 France: 13%
#9 Sweden: 13%
#10 Denmark: 13%
#11 Italy: 12%
#12 United Kingdom: 11%
#13 Austria: 7%
#14 Canada: 6%
#15 Australia: 3%
#16 United States: 2%
#17 Ireland: 2%
Weighted average: 14.1%

Answer 1

All known liberals in the American government should be booted out. And should not have been allowed into our government in the first place.

Answer 2

Is pride related to happiness? I think it was a United Nations survey this year which said the place raising the happiest children in the developed world was the Netherlands and the places raising the unhappiest children were the U.S and U.K.
I prefer the idea of healthy self-esteem as opposed to pride which to me is having a healthy and accepting view of one's good and bad points and being capable of receiving compliments or criticism without it going to one's head. Surely that is a better indicator or the state of a nations health.

Answer 3

That is absolutely correct, having served in the US Armed Forces for 21 Years, and meeting lots of people world wide that said that they would like to visit the USA because of it's beauty and the Americans that they had met and made friends with. I personnally have made friends with 2 very nice German familys that I met on my many travels in Germany. I was in Germany off and on for 9 1/2 Years. Germany is also a beautiful country.

Answer 4

I haven't seen the survey you refer to, so I don't know the quality of it, but in general I wouldn't be surprised if it's true. Just remember that the readiness to say that you are proud of your country or not has nothing to do with whether your country actually DESERVES pride or not. The Germans of today, who have nothing to be ashamed of, obviously replied that they are not proud of their country (just like an anti-Nazi German 65-70 years ago would have done). But if you had asked a Nazi German 65-70 years ago if he was proud of Germany, he would without a doubt have replied yes - or "Ja! Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!" Those who have no reason to be ashamed of their country today say that they aren't proud, while the ones who committed some of the worst atrocities in world history were not at all ashamed of their country, but horribly proud of it - back then. In some historical (or contemporary) settings, shame of your country is a moral virtue and a political obligation, and a badge of courage, while pride of your country is a perversion and the slippery slope to genocide.

So, the readiness to express national pride has historical and political explanations. But there are also cultural ones. What is generally accepted and what is not accepted in a specific culture or country? In Sweden, we have a proverb that says "Self-praise stinks". So we are very reluctant to say that we are proud of our country, or proud of ourselves - even if we secretly (and slightly ashamedly) think that we do quite well... I think that the same goes for Japan, where politeness and modesty are seen as major virtues, unlike in the U.S., where I have reasons to believe that national pride and readiness to express it are regarded as much greater virtues than modesty and respect for other countries and cultures.

A funny quotation from http://www.nnn.se/n-model/disinfo/rotten2.htm about the Swedish tendency to anti-patriotism:

"... a curious aspect of the Swedish national character-- an apparent compulsion to criticise one's own country. The Swedes may well be the most consistent anti-patriots on earth, and are always on the lookout for some reassuring evidence that they are just as wicked as anyone else, preferably worse. One of their favourite self-accusatory epigrams-- presuming a national habit of stifling all individual pride and initiative-- originated with a writer who spent most of his life in Norway and coined the epigram with specific reference to his home town in Denmark.

In combination with the news media's desperate quest for excitingly bad news to report, the national habit of self-criticism provides a perfect climate for SAF's ideological campaign, whose constant theme is that just about everything is rotten in the state of Sweden. It is fairly easy for journalists and other interested parties to find a Swede who is willing to state that the sky is falling; but it is generally considered very bad form to praise one's own country."

Answer 5

uh... not sure you could make that assement based on those numbers exactly...

they only discuss those that are "not proud"... there could be a great deal that simply "don't care either way".... so they wouldn't be "proud" or "not proud"...

but I do think pride is a more conservative idea... heritage and tradition are the rallying points of conservatives... the "we've always did it that way" attitude... so, if it is true, it wouldn't be that surprising...

Answer 6

While I usually distrust surveys, it was nice to finally come on top for a change. Nevertheless, we Americans (even the hate America crowd who are enjoying all the benefits of living here) all know that the USA is the greatest place on earth. We don't need a survey to say that ...

Answer 7

You forgot to mention that the Swedes are the happiest in the world to be of their nation... despite the fact beeing small

Answer 8

We are proud of our country but not of our surrender-monkey congress at this time.

Answer 9

The more pride the more likely to go to war I would think.

Answer 10

Yes. The kind of blind patriotism that exists in America is frowned on in most of the world as being a bit ridiculous and primitive. It's just a country, say most developed countries. Nothing to get so excited about. However, most countries on that list have plenty to be proud about. We just don't rank patriotism high on the list of virtues.

Americans see their country as a beloved parent. We Europeans see it as a slightly annoying aunt.