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Can overt patriotism to one's country be detrimental to a person's ability to know and care about world issues? Ask a Question

Can overt patriotism to one's country be detrimental to a person's ability to know and care about world issues?
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4 Answers

Yes. Some people feel that perhaps thinking about another country, even the rest of the world is too distant, so they instead choose to ignore issues like world hunger and other less known issues that plague poorer countries around the world.

1 Replies to lalebakis's answer

Good answer, but if you live in a large country with a very wide socio-economic range then you realize there are so many needy people in your country whom you should care about first. When you know there are none suffering in your own country then it is okay to take up collections for people in other countries.

I think the reason Americans do tend to think more about people in other countries is because so many (actually almost all) came from other countries and their ethnic pride often inspires them to want to be more generous to their kin abroad than to their much more immediate neighbors.

The word "overt" simply means "open to view or knowledge; not concealed or secret." So no, being open about one's patriotism does not affect ability to know and care about world issues.

Being jingoistic, on the other hand, certainly would.

1 Replies to plawler's answer

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If they live in the USA, YES, most definitely. :)

If you ask every single United States citizen anything about world issues, more often than not, you will receive a biased or inaccurate statement, and even more likely you will have to explain your question to us because a majority of us have no idea what's going on outside of the USA or Iraq, and even THEN we haven't a clue.