WhiteBlue wrote:National pride and self esteem and the promotion of national values, traditions and achievements is basically a good thing. Where it turns into something ugly is the point where people get unaware that other nationalities have the same natural right to also promote and enjoy their heritage and achievements. This is what we usually call nationalism. It is universally seen as a bad thing. When it comes to isms I believe that they are all pretty bad. Nationalism, racism,sexism, religious fundamentalism all share the same root. They separate humans in different categories and say that some are good and some are bad based on arbitrary group aspects.
While I think this is well-done and that you're correct on the -isms sharing the same root, I think you're incorrect as to why it happens.
Sartre wrote:If the Jew did not exist, the Anti-Semite would invent him.
People that get deep into these -isms do so because they don't have much going for them to begin with and they need to make themselves feel better. So what do they do? They say "Well, atleast I'm not ____________." That's it, they start to define themselves by what they're NOT. People don't join white supremacist groups because they dislike fried chicken or burritos or even because they may think brown people cause crime or violence or whatever else. They do it simply to remind everyone that they're not brown and that it's a point of pride for them.
Here's an example we may be familiar with: a member who's so proud of NOT being Australian that he starts throwing epithets around whenever the Down Under comes up. Not just that, but he goes out of his way to register a new account to post
You know who wrote:“Australia became an independent nation on 1 January 1901. The British Parliament passed legislation allowing the six Australian colonies to govern in their own right as part of the Commonwealth of Australia.”
Why? Seems so innocuous, yet why (re-)register just to post that? To remind the Brits that they're NOT Australian!, seemingly in hopes of lifting their spirits. (FWIW, I hear Australia's a lovely place, provided you don't eff with the wildlife.)
Sorry to re-print this next bit but it took quite a bit of restraint not to flip out at the time:
You know who wrote:If it wasn't for slavery, these same people would be running across the savannah in a loin cloth hoping to catch something for dinner tonight. Instead, the horrid toll was paid for them, so they could become educated people, overfeed their children, and use the internet to bitch about what they obviously do not understand.
Does he feel superior because of the loin cloths? Because his ancestral home had meadows instead of savanna? Because he doesn't use the internet to bitch? (lol) No, he feels superior because this is a position he'll never be in, and why, because he's NOT black. It's that easy, be born white and (if you're a c*ck) you can feel great for NOT being black.
WB wrote:Waving a flag and cheering for people you identify with is fine.
So to bring it back to F1, I think you're absolutely right about this. If McL wants to say "We're proud of ourselves because we're based in Britain, we've got two MBEs driving our cars and we're doing pretty effing well" I don't see any problem with that.
But if you're going to say "Our car will be done quickly because Europeans are lazy and it's cold there and we're NOT Europeans except for me and that Welshman over there" then you're going to get tagged as an -ist.
Sorry to run on but it's great to see this conversation happening without being an outrageous and hurtful tangent. Thanks Richard.
