Today, many publicly confess their love for the Motherland. But if we leave publicity aside, what does our attitude towards the country in which we were born and live say?
Pride for one’s country unites and inspires: it is enough to recall the newsreel footage where thousands of people greet Yuri Gagarin, or to be on the streets of Spain after the victory of the football team. But do patriotic feelings make us happier? Sociologists Tim Riskens and Matthew Wright (Tim Reeskens, Matthew Wright) decided to understand how ethnic patriotism (based on a common origin, history, religion) and civic patriotism (based on liberal values, respect for the law and state institutions) * influence the sense of self. An analysis of the survey data of more than 40 Europeans from three dozen countries gave an unambiguous result: only civic patriotism makes us optimists and increases our subjective well-being. Why is this happening?
Expert opinion
Maxim Rudnev, sociologist: “The feeling of love for the Motherland must be fueled by pride in order to be real. Meanwhile, Russians are more often ashamed of their country, and only athletes give a reason for pride. Perhaps that is why many people talk about the “good” past and the “bad” present, looking for solace in the great history. Disappointment and dislike for everything new turns into nationalism and does not make us happier.”
Dmitry Leontiev, psychologist: “Having settled in the space around us, we expand the concept of “ours” to the borders of the country, and then to the whole of humanity. This is how tolerance arises – recognition of the value of other people and cultures. It excludes hostility towards the alien and therefore makes life better. In the desire to see the superiority of one’s own (ethnos, state, religion) in everything, group narcissism is manifested – a tendency to absolutize one’s ideas and consider any others obviously false.
Svetlana Fedorova, psychoanalyst: “Ethnic patriotism means a strong attachment to the Motherland, which can cause an archaic fear of symbiosis with an omnipotent mother capable of absorbing. And then love for the Motherland on an unconscious level can disturb us. Anyone who does not have enough of himself, self-realization in the family, sex, work, is forced to rely on myths about a great race, history or culture. This artificial “support” cannot replace one’s own “I” and make a person happy.
Hakob Nazaretyan, political psychologist: “A modern educated person increasingly thinks of himself not as part of a confession or nation, but on the scale of civilization. Therefore, when we are limited by the boundaries of an ethnic community, we experience cognitive dissonance, in other words, we are unhappy. On the contrary, where the division into “us” and “them” is weaker, citizens develop a sense of mutual respect and involvement in everything that happens in their country. Aggression and violence levels are decreasing, there are grounds for optimism.”