Poll: would you die for your country?

[Lazy Kitty]

No, not a chance.
I'd see my own country (and others) destroyed for my own sake if I felt it was necessary.

If your not willing to die for it, then why live there?

Because I have to live somewhere. And all of earth is part of some country.

 

[The Cor]

I would carve the Coat of Arms into my chest, charge the enemies with an club, sing our national anthem and then get shot in the face.
This is the kind of image I get when somebody talks about "dying for your country". No sir, I didn't like it.

 

[Jonabob87]

If I was in some ridiculous situation where it was either I die, or Scotland is destroyed then yes I'd die for my country in a second.

Even if no one was here except me. I LOVE this place, best country in the world.

 

[Jonabob87]

You put a lot of faith in your country.
If your government's military told you it was your duty to suicide bomb innocent civilians 'in the name of your country' you would do it then? If so, why not? Don't you love your country?

I suppose I would die in if my life was directly required in order to maintain ideological freedoms (e.g. arguably WW2, that's about it) or to save many other people's lives (which is not the same thing as dying for your country, hell if my life would save a million Arabs it'd be worth dying for).

I hate the term 'loving your country' and our supposed duty to do so altogether; it's way too abstract. I love liberty, egalitarianism, justice etc. but they are just components of what a 'country' represents. Would you be so forceful towards a North Korean to love their country?

You can love your country without loving the current regime. The French didn't automatically hate France or love the Nazis during the occupation!

 

[Mace Tulio]

Not my current country of residence, but I'd be more than happy to die for a country that I feel it necessary.

That being said, I'm really not a fan of patriotism. In many cases patriotism obscures logic.

 

[Aprilgold]

I'd die for a gal, I'd die for my parents, and YOU CAN BET YOUR FUCKING ASS I would die for my dogs, my country, no, soldiers and others can die for purposes that they want, if I want to die, I'll die keeping a paratrooper from shooting my wife, I'd die for my dogs because they brought me joy through dark years, I'd die for my parents because they were so wonderful. Again, if all nations combined tommorow afternoon, opening up new languages, opening up logic trades, world trading would become so easy and productive, but since thats not going to happen while I'm alive, why the hell both stating it, since no one is going to try and make it a reality.

 

[senorfatso]

You put a lot of faith in your country.
If your government's military told you it was your duty to suicide bomb innocent civilians 'in the name of your country' you would do it then? If so, why not? Don't you love your country?

I suppose I would die in if my life was directly required in order to maintain ideological freedoms (e.g. arguably WW2, that's about it) or to save many other people's lives (which is not the same thing as dying for your country, hell if my life would save a million Arabs it'd be worth dying for).

I hate the term 'loving your country' and our supposed duty to do so altogether; it's way too abstract. I love liberty, egalitarianism, justice etc. but they are just components of what a 'country' represents. Would you be so forceful towards a North Korean to love their country?

You can love your country without loving the current regime. The French didn't automatically hate France or love the Nazis during the occupation!

Then what is it your actually loving when you say you love your country? The ground? Is the question now 'are you willing to die for a plot of land'?

Country borders are completely man-made. Whatever feelings we are supposed to have towards something so immaterial and arbitrary, I would not call it love.

 

[putowtin]

the only thing I would die for is my family
the country can sort it's self out!

 

[Liberaliter]

I'm sure someone else has mentioned this already, but here is a brilliant passage from Catch 22 regarding the matter http://www.desiquintans.com/permalink.php?PostID=46. "Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for." So no, I would not die for my country.

 

[Jitte Hoekstra]

would i die for my country? NO
Would i die for my freedom and the internet? HELL YEA
Not that i don't like my country but it ain't worth dying for. However i would gladly give my life if it would keep the symbol and expression of free speech free.

 

[Debatra]

Nobody ever won a war by dying for his country. He did it by making the other bastard die for his country.

 

[silasbufu]

Would my country die for me?

 

[Jonabob87]

You put a lot of faith in your country.
If your government's military told you it was your duty to suicide bomb innocent civilians 'in the name of your country' you would do it then? If so, why not? Don't you love your country?

I suppose I would die in if my life was directly required in order to maintain ideological freedoms (e.g. arguably WW2, that's about it) or to save many other people's lives (which is not the same thing as dying for your country, hell if my life would save a million Arabs it'd be worth dying for).

I hate the term 'loving your country' and our supposed duty to do so altogether; it's way too abstract. I love liberty, egalitarianism, justice etc. but they are just components of what a 'country' represents. Would you be so forceful towards a North Korean to love their country?

You can love your country without loving the current regime. The French didn't automatically hate France or love the Nazis during the occupation!

Then what is it your actually loving when you say you love your country? The ground? Is the question now 'are you willing to die for a plot of land'?

Country borders are completely man-made. Whatever feelings we are supposed to have towards something so immaterial and arbitrary, I would not call it love.

Well my love for my country is based around the land, the history and the people that develop from it. Where you grow up is a big determining factor in certain aspects of your personality and I really adore the Scottish ones (constant gallows humour, harsh language, a strong emphasis on loyalty). If I hadn't grown up in Scotland I'd be a different person, and I like the person Scotland has helped make me.

It's also the land that my descendants lived in for thousands of years (as far back as we can find there's nothing but Scottish in my family tree) and all the family history is here. The good; Rob Roy MacGregor, the bad; it becoming illegal to be of the MacGregor clan, and the humorous; having other clans pay us not to steal their cattle after failing repeatedly to stop us.

To finish off, Scotland is just a beautiful looking place. I even love the weather!

All of these things combine to give me a stern love for my country regardless of it's leadership, and others can feel the same about their own country.

 

[Phototoxin]

Ireland? LoL?

More likely to die for the emperor !

 

[Pat8u]

I live in australia nothing ever threatens australia /sarcasm(maybe)

OT: No fuck(MMF) that if australia is ever seriously threatened I just move on to another place
Dieing for the people in it however

 

[Sordak]

i would have in the past.
but not these days, these days my country is killing itself. Probably back then when Austrians were proud of their country and didnt hate their heiritage like they do now, if they wouldnt be so decadent now and honor the past and try to live to make life for a future generation better, but no, not now, not in those times of self hatred, ducking and decadence!

 

[Cenequus]

Voted no,just because. Anywho dying for is pretty easy,killing for is much harder.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

The real question is: "would you kill for your country?"

Wars are not between good and bad: they are just conflicts of interest. I don't give a fuck about the governmental body that supervises me. If they want me to go to war (which they don't, Hungary has ridiculously few soldiers as it is and no reason to go to war with anyone nearby), I'll just riot. Burn the system, all that shit.

 

[senorfatso]

You put a lot of faith in your country.
If your government's military told you it was your duty to suicide bomb innocent civilians 'in the name of your country' you would do it then? If so, why not? Don't you love your country?

I suppose I would die in if my life was directly required in order to maintain ideological freedoms (e.g. arguably WW2, that's about it) or to save many other people's lives (which is not the same thing as dying for your country, hell if my life would save a million Arabs it'd be worth dying for).

I hate the term 'loving your country' and our supposed duty to do so altogether; it's way too abstract. I love liberty, egalitarianism, justice etc. but they are just components of what a 'country' represents. Would you be so forceful towards a North Korean to love their country?

You can love your country without loving the current regime. The French didn't automatically hate France or love the Nazis during the occupation!

Then what is it your actually loving when you say you love your country? The ground? Is the question now 'are you willing to die for a plot of land'?

Country borders are completely man-made. Whatever feelings we are supposed to have towards something so immaterial and arbitrary, I would not call it love.

Well my love for my country is based around the land, the history and the people that develop from it. Where you grow up is a big determining factor in certain aspects of your personality and I really adore the Scottish ones (constant gallows humour, harsh language, a strong emphasis on loyalty). If I hadn't grown up in Scotland I'd be a different person, and I like the person Scotland has helped make me.

It's also the land that my descendants lived in for thousands of years (as far back as we can find there's nothing but Scottish in my family tree) and all the family history is here. The good; Rob Roy MacGregor, the bad; it becoming illegal to be of the MacGregor clan, and the humorous; having other clans pay us not to steal their cattle after failing repeatedly to stop us.

To finish off, Scotland is just a beautiful looking place. I even love the weather!

All of these things combine to give me a stern love for my country regardless of it's leadership, and others can feel the same about their own country.

Well I suppose I can see the appeal of country love when you consider the permanent connection an entire people can have with its surroundings (thanks for the clarification), but I still do not consider this a necessary duty. It's the same question as unconditional love for your parents, which again should surely only exist if one is treated right by those who have such an integral role in our upbringing.

Personally, I struggle to get as excited as you about English weather when I could be in Northern Italy right now

 

[Strazdas]

no. i think "country" is bad concept. we are all people. we all live on earth. we dont need no countries to divide us.