Should I be Proud of my Country?

That is the question: it was posed on Question Time on BBC TV a few weeks ago. I found that I could not answer it either way, not because I did not have an opinion on the issue, but because of the troublesome word “proud”. My reply would be that I am happy to be British, and to live in the UK. But does that fill me with pride?

What bothers me about “proud” and “pride” is firstly the theological doctrine that pride is a deadly sin: taking the credit for what happened and not acknowledging the Grace of God. (Or that a lot of luck was involved.)

Do I like “proud people”? Not those who think they think they are better than everyone else. That is one stage worse than “self-satisfied”.

“Proud” can mean “arrogant”, and at an extreme form “hubristic”. Pride in relation to one’s country in the case of some can imply extreme nationalism or worse.

But I must confess that it is hard to find a better word in some contexts. Someone has just won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. He /she can surely feel proud, and I can feel proud of them. Likewise, if your child has just got three As at A-level, “pride” surely has a place there, but in the sense of satisfaction rather than looking down on others who have not done so well. The right sort of pride can live alongside of humility and gratitude.

As for pride in your country, that takes in how the country is now and what its history was like. In both cases there is some good and some not so good. But why dwell on history anyway. Some say you can learn lessons from it: but I am not so sure. Life was very different in years gone by: e.g. no TV, no smart phones, no modern medicine, no Internet, no air travel.

It is better to try to get to grips with the world as it is now and to try to make things better for the here and now and for future generations. If we and the powers that be can do that, perhaps we can all feel proud.

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