What amount of loyalty do you feel toward your country?

I'm kind of weighing the virtue of the freedom of America with the kick ass ways of Germany. Example: We are free to recycle here in America...result: Nobody recycles. It is the law in Germany to separate your trash into glass, plastic, ext...result: everyone recycles. I don't feel that people should have the right to ruin Earth.

It is an interesting issue. All the European countries have certain advantages over the US because their governments are not so focused on the abstract ideal of "Freedom". On the other hand, they often seem to have their heads up their asses. Does Germany still have that law that you can't name your children "Gazpacho" even if you want to? That always pissed me off but then we have all these people named Latrina or Moonbeam.

I wouldn't want to see it taken over by anyone else, I'll say that much. I don't think I'd be willing to shoot babies for it or anything.

About as much as it feels towards me.

I wasn't aware of that. Certainly in England, the church has a right to refuse a Christening if it objects to the name, but you can pretty much change your name to anything via deed poll. One guy a few years ago was so annoyed with his bank, he changed his name to Mr. Yorkshire-Bank-PLC-Are-Fascist-B*stards, just so they'd have to print it out every time they sent him a letter.

I think I am loyal to Canada. I don't know if I'd go to war unless it was really important and something that I really believed in.

Great! I'll have to ask my Dad about the details, but he claims that at one point (probably at least into the 50's), you couldn't get a birth certificate unless you could prove that the name on it was a "real" name in some country. I think it must have been related to the German Language Police who are only now being slowly overcome by people who want to speak German their own way and not get chastized for it.

I don't like Britain today, I don't like the way its run... and I have been known to advocate the 'Britain becoming the nth state of America' suggestion, but I do live here and I am a resident of this country, so I feel an obligation to be loyal, regardless of my personal opinions - after all you have to trust in the people who lead you even if you don't always agree- if everyone did their own thing and was only loyal when it suited them it would be anarchy. Plus I look at Britain the way it was 50 years ago, and the way everyone pulled together during the war - and this reminds me that we might be going through a bad patch, but that there's definitely still a country to feel proud of over here.

Britain can't become the Nth state of America; America already has N states.

Are you counting Puerto Rico?

None whatsoever.

I picked "loyal", I would have preferred something between "loyal" and "no obligation". Any loyalty I have is to the people, not to the government.

I feel no obligation to my country. I haven't lived there since I was 8. I feel more loyalty to the country where I live, even though I am not a citizen.

What part of our great and vast country are you from?

What do we mean by 'loyalty' anyway? Not to be a traitor? To assume the directory lines of a government? To accept the political system that rules the country? Going to war? ...
I think the concept of patriotism and loyalty towards a country is an overrated concept, more related to a 19th century conception of Nation, and thus deserves my rejection.

How much loyalty do I feel for the country of my ancestors, the one that cleaves to my heart, or the country in which I am forced to dwell? What is "my" country? I have no loyalty for the United States of America. I have a deep hatred for it. I'd betray her in a heartbeat. Despite my dislike of anonymous postings I post this thus to avoid hatred of me because of my opinions on this matter. I do not hate you, I do not hate all Americans, I just hate the country.

Why are you forced to dwell here?

I guess I'm loyal; I don't think of myself as particularly patriotic, and I think the US has it's problems, but I'm also not in any hurry to reject it or to live somewhere else. I think there are plenty of other great countries, and probable many I would enjoy living in, but I also recognize how good I have it because I live here.

oops...probably

family and circumstance

I think "loyalty" towards your country is an odd thing. What is your country? It's an abstraction. It's not a person. It's barely a set of ideals. What would you do out of loyalty for your country? Turn in your neighbor for some suspected crime? Kill another person? I think it's better to be loyal to people.

I agree w/romkey, though I would add loyalty to place as well as people. Since it's the people and the place that make the country, I think hating one's own country is also about hating oneself and therefore pretty destructive.

I think i am loyal, but not in a military sense. We have the most powerful nation on the planet and I'm proud of that, though it doesn't make sense that i would never defend my country.

I feel disgust toward every country.

These answers are not really mutually exclusive. I have some degree of loyalty, and feel some degree of disgust.

Just because I was born here does not make me loyal. If I were born in France I would be expected to be loyal to them. It is not a birth obligation to love your country. I am from the Southern US, so I feel loyal to my particular region, not the entire country.

(N+1)th state then - didn't you know; us British are notoriously bad at maths.

Isn't your particular region just an accident of birth too?

It certainly is, but I think "loyalty" to a country comes from affection, which usually builds over time. I don't consider myself a patriot, but if someone were going to nuke the US and wipe it off the face of the earth, it would bother me because I've lived here and I know a lot of great things that would be destroyed. If it were, say, Namibia, I wouldn't be as worried because I don't know that country and I don't really understand what would be lost if it were to vanish.

my sentiments exactly

I feel disgust towards most countries, not just mine. Everyone is mean and people should go feed starving children.

Starving people should stop having children.....
Before anyone responds and makes all the usual excuses for starving people.....
I know I know...I've heard all the arguments...blah blah blah...

Yes, and I do mean anorexics too!

I think instead of giving starving countries food, we should give them birth control education.

I'm loyal to the ideals, not necessarily "my country", not the leaders of my country or the people, just the ideals.

That's funny. Our tour guide in Cairo said that Egypt has laws against naming your children things like "Donkey". He said it had more to do with religion though. The parents believed that their children would be safe from evil because the devil wouldn't realize they were human based on their name and would thus leave them alone.

I LIKE CHEESE!

I am completely loyal to the United States of America. Everything I enjoy, my family, way of life and my very freedom is attendant on the fact many people sacrificed themselves to make this all possible. If my country needs me, I am there.

how about if the people who sacrificed themselves for you need you?

I love Canada. I would do anything to protect this wonderful place.

I love my country, I hate it's government.

I really don't like the government of my country or the decisions they are making but I am proud to be english!

Loyal yes, but I wouldn't die for my country.

I would do anything for my country if it came down to it

I have a loyalty to my community, my district, even borough, perhaps city. But not to the whole country I don't think. It's a really tough question to answer with certainty!

I have more loyalty to certain beliefs of liberty some of which my country enshrines in Law. I am loyal to the country on those I suppose.

I feel no obligation toward my country...I believe in complete and total anarchy then national establishment...I'd overthrow my country before I would do do anything to help it...unless it involves the environment :)

I am very loyal, but not blindly loyal, so I hesitate to say "I would do anything"..thats Hitler-style loyalty. But would I die for my country? Yes.

Interesting, I see a lot of other loyalties here besides "country", like region, city etc.

I feel disgust right now. This wasn't always the case though.