No God, No Country

When I was young, my family stayed in a Caravan park, the owner patrolled the park on a little bicycle, we got up his nose by using the pool on 'seniors day' or some other stupidity and then he wouldn't leave us alone. He would pull up my father in the car and say 'do you know the park speed limit?' and my dad would say 'no' and he would say '5 km p/h do you know what you were doing?' and my dad would say 'no' and he would say '6 km p/h' admittedly that was 20% above the speed limit. But could be put down to the sensitivity of accelerator pedals. Yes my dad could have used cruise control, he was careeless, reckless, irresponsible.
But more acurately the caravan park owner was a dick. An Australian dick. I am also Australian. And in Australia, you can say this, Australians are Australian.
Mark Twain to get to the point though, said this:

The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also. - Mark Twain

I've been quoting Mark Twain a lot lately, but he is a gold mine for insight and witicisms. My atheism I hope is well known, and I don't get much pushback on it and haven't for a number of years, except when I showed up at meetings of COMMON. Which if you kept the above quote in mind, multi-faith meetings would have to be the biggest evidence of human stupidity in the world.
But then there is also this insight also from Mark Twain.

The rule is perfect; in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

A form of Catch-22 that allows anyone of faith in anything to maintain there own faith in the presence of contrary evidence.
But whilst religion cops a fair beating, there is a form of religion that is arguably more dangerous, just like Marijuana has damaged more of my friends lives than heroine despite it honeslty being benign in comparison.
Let me go back a bit, the year before last there was a stink kicked up in the leadup to Australia day, because the organisors had banned the Australian flag at 'The Big Day Out' stating that previously with the racial violence in Sydney the flag had been used by gangs to pressure people to swear allegence to it on the threat of a beating.
I can understand why the organisors had thought it prudent, and to me it seemed a sensible precaution. What surprised me was the outrage it caused. I was honestly surprised anyone would care. But it seemed that sydney over the weekend had a large population of people who don't own shirts or pants and had absolutely nothing else to wear but the Australian flag.
The NSW premier was on Sunrise and Today talking about investigating legal action they could possibly take. Then more ecoverage on the day triumphantly showed all those fine examples of humanity that aree patriotic australians turning up defiantly wearing their Australian flags and harping on about how 'Australia is the greatest country in the world'.
This display would surely make an American scoff with contempt at the ignorant foreigners who know so little. Don't they know 'The U.S. is the greatest country in the world.' its a plain fact. And it is an insidious lie spread as propaganda of the infidels, a clear attack at the true greatest country on earth: Saudi Arabia.
After all Saudi Arabia is host to the two most important cities in Islam, the unquestionable homeland of the true prophet of Allah - Mohommed.
Of course Islam is historically unverafiable, and one can clearly see that the 'land of the gods is Japan' the country more unique than any other, one cannot become 'Japanese' on has to be Japanese all ones life.
Similar to the orthodox Jewish belief that a Jewish person must come from a Jewish womb, and Isreal is clearly the greatest country because it houses god's chosen people.
But since wheen did religion have anything to do with anything, what about living standards? then one can say simply that Scandanavian states are 'the greatest countries in the world.'
And we come back to Mark Twain's comment, I am highly suspicious that my country is not the greatest in the world. Sure it is the most convenient for me. I can live there and enjoy all its benifits that comes from the default membership I have.
But what is a Nation? It is at the end of the day, just a word. 'Australia' 'America' 'Babylon' and they are 'creations' clear cut creations unlike reeligion where theree are myths about god's actively establishing reeligions. Religion is a manmade creation too, but the creation often isn't as widely accepted as the blatent out and out reporting of history of founding nations.
Which is fine, to take pride in any institution or company or anything manmade. Except that Nationalism geets promoted to religious status in that it isn't nearly as accountable to facts or subjectivity than others.
And most often employed by governments in the same way a priest or cleric or abbot can invoke authority over something as objective and deeply personal as religious beliefs, all based on membership.
Mark Twain had this to say on such practices:

To put it in rude, plain, unpalatable words — true patriotism, real patriotism: loyalty not to a Family and a Fiction, but a loyalty to the Nation itself!
..."Remember this, take this to heart, live by it, die for it if necessary: that our patriotism is medievel, outworn, obsolete; that the modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it." [Czar Nicholas II]

Which doesn't go far enough. Because a nation is ultimately a word designed to devide. A wall, a barrier. Membership in a club, that takes virtues comman to all humanity and then tries to copyright them. Just like the company that tried to own water that falls from the sky.
I will never forget how impressed I was at the Melbourne Youth Forum of something or rather that I got invited too through the aforementioned multifaith efforts and I asked the panel how they felt about all the 'this is what Australia stands for' crap that goes on the TV before Australia day eveery year.
And the girl said 'There is nothing Australain about being a decent human being, theree is nothing Australian about treating people with respect' and she didn't mean that Australains were disrespectful indeecent human beings. But more along the lines of what Chris Rock was getting at:

You know the worst thing about niggas? Niggas always want credit for some shit they supposed to do. A nigga'll brag about some shit a normal man just does. A nigga'll say some shit like 'I take care of my kids.' You supposed to you dumb mutha fucker! What kind of ignorant shit is that! 'I ain't never been to jail!'What do you want, a cookie?! You're not supposed to go to jail you low expectation-having motherfucker!

That's the form most patriotism takes. An illusion, and then there's the religious fervor. In America the police will take you away for burning an American flag. That's too much freedom. In a place where freedom of speech is gaurunteeed under the constitution. Albeit it doeesn't permit hate speech, unless hating people is part of your religion.
But Bill Hick's take is most instructive again:

"Hey buddy, my daddy died for that flag."

"Really? I bought mine. Yeah, they sell them at K-Mart and shit."

"He died in the Korean War."

"Wow, what a coincidence. Mine was made in Korea."

No one – and I repeat, no one – has ever died for a flag. See, a flag … is just a piece of cloth. They may have died for freedom, which is also the freedom to burn the fucking flag, see. That's freedom.

And that's the plain simple balls of the matter. A flag is just a piece of cloth. A country is just a word, put on a map. I don't oppose organisation, I oppose people investing fancy, imaginary things in words and piece of cloth.
Like in the story of William Tell, putting a hat on a pole and expecting the townspeople to bow to it.
Same same when I visit temples now over seas. I used to 'do as a roman does' and follow the superstitious rituals. Shinto is a money making machine, and I kind of respect its unashamed capitalist bent, but praying for miracles to entities I can't believe can hear my thoughts are just as ridiculous as ascribing character traits to geeographic boundaries drawn on a map.
Thatcher famously said 'there is no such thing as society' I believe in society, and community. But not reeligiously, I believe a particular group of people most likely will adopt common norms. But these can't be qualitative except in functional forms. And even then if you take an obvious example of culture such as language, there is no basis to really say one is better than another.
I have a friend who complains about the lack of 'love' subcategories in English. And I have to admit, that Japanese is real easy to speak thanks to having no constanant clusters. But to say one is superior, one is better. That is faith.
I have an exercise overseas which is useful I find, and that is, when a foreigner is talking to me, to briefly picture them as someone I know.
It alters that perspective that makes different standards based on a manufactured belief that people from another country are different to you.
When a took took driver is haggling to take me around to temples and to do so for less than a dollar, and I picture it as a friend from College, haggling takes on a new form, if it was a friend of mine selling himself out just for 20c (and being fucking annoying in the process) I would feel like he had fallen on hard times. Instead of gawking and marvelling at this 'quaint curious culture'
Thailand is a good place to learn all about nationalism, at least for me. Having no idea about thailand before coming here, I invariably fell in with the rest of the tourist crowd. Seeing tourists at the airport is the first time I have seeen unfamiliar Australians in 4 months. Do I feel a patriotic kinship? no. Because a lot of Australian tourists that come to Thailand are bogans I wouldn't necessarily associate with at home.
There is a world of difference between me and other people even ones that went to the same high school as me. And that's not to say I am unique, but that everyone is. The world over.
Some countries human life does seem more 'comodified' namely China's overpopulation and Japan's homogeniety, but evene then, I know in both cases from having personal friends that there is always a full spectrum from the reepreheensible to the wonderful in any area of 100km square anywhere there is land on earth.
And that's precisely why I say now, that I am not just an athiest but a creature of reason, and that I will embark on a No God, No Country, philosophy. Practically by virtue of passports, common law and so fourth, I will always be Australian, but that is just membership to a society.
What it means is acknowledgement of what I have held true for a long time. I would never for the sake of something so flimsy as a country, go shoot a perfectly decent foreigner in war, to protect and defend some Caravan park owner who happens to have been pushed out a cunt in the same country I was.
Likewise I wouldn't sell out my neighbour for the ambitions of some other national just because my wife is from there and I find her delightful.
Nationality shouldn't come into it, it should all be about character, which is all about behaviour, which is all about the individual.