Which works out just fine – they don’t want to be nor should they.

We have this goofy idea that nationalism is inherently a bad thing. Like all isms, it can be taken way too far. Any ideology can be made into a bad thing by taking it to extremes.

But BOTH extremes are bad.

Do you fix a broken cup? Most of the time the answer is no but what if it belonged to your grandmother and was special to you? Instead of grabbing the glue, you might find a craftsman who could repair it. When something is important enough, the expense isn’t so important.

Loving your country – your home – isn’t a bad thing. Being blind to your country’s faults, that’s bad. But so is not caring enough about your country to even try to improve it. People don’t put effort into things they don’t care about.

Nation-states, even the little bitty ones, are powerful. Extremely powerful in comparison to the individual or even groups. That power is dangerous. That power can easily be misused. That power can hurt people. That power can kill.

America is the mightiest nation on Earth. How much more dangerous is she? America is governed by her own people. What happens when those people don’t care enough about her to bother to improve her?

Nothing good.

A healthy nationalism is good and not just for America. All nation-states, regardless of the system of government they use, are influenced by their citizens. Peasants can be so revolting, doncha know? Yes, even the most totalitarian governments live in some fear of their citizenry. In totalitarian systems, this can act as a brake. It’s not really efficient but it does sometimes work.

In more democratic (republican) systems, the influence is much stronger. It’s chaotic and messy and almost never smooth, but the people do make themselves heard and changes are made. Then they figure out why that didn’t work and fix it. The fancy term is ‘muddling through’. It’s about as glamorous as it sounds – but it works.

As long as people care enough to try to change their country.

Love of country doesn’t mean loving all the things your country did wrong. Countries are just really big groups of people and are no more perfect than the people that make them up. All nation-states have nastiness in their histories just like everyone has something they are ashamed of. People are not defined by their worst moment and nation-states shouldn’t be either. Those who truly love their countries want their countries to do better and to be better.

Nationalism isn’t unique to America nor should it be. The British should be proud of the United Kingdom. Russians should love Russia. Ugandans should be proud of Uganda. Japanese should love Japan. Chileans should be proud of Chile.

And so on down the entire list. Every country has something good about it. And every country is somebody’s home.

When you hate your home, you move. You don’t fix the steps, paint the siding, replace that drippy faucet – you don’t put that kind of effort into something you hate. No one does.

Nation-states are a clear and present danger to themselves, each other and every living thing on Earth. Countries are POWERFUL. Unguided, that power runs amok. There are eight billion of us – we can’t all just move to another country. Even if we could, that would just make things worse. Crowded disgruntled masses get into all kinds of trouble.

If no one cares about their respective countries, then no one will take care of them. Feed and water the politicians. Take out the bureaucrats for their walk. Buy the navy that new destroyer they have been begging for. Vote out the idiots instead of just papering over the stain.

You know, just taking care of the place.

Okay, blatantly obvious you say? You’re right. Here’s why it matters: the US can’t actually take all the huddled masses and make it work. There are too many and they come with cultural baggage that will weigh them down and us with them. We can take a lot but eventually we stop being a melting pot and just become a slum to the benefit of no one.

Nor can we just export our culture. Okay, sure, baseball and hot dogs are pretty easy but the values and the culture that make America America, those intangibles have to be absorbed, not merely exported. Even then, no nation would succeed by becoming a little USA – America only fits America.

Oh stop giving me that look – you know I don’t believe in hopeless. And this is no different. Valuing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness isn’t uniquely American but our flavor of them is. Each nation-state, each culture, has to choose to adopt those values as their own and then make them really their own. Their own flavor, their own style, the mix that they can not only live with but want to make part of their cultural DNA.

It’s not only okay for other countries to like themselves it’s critically important that they do. Self hate doesn’t lead to self improvement. But if nation-states take pride in themselves, that will lead to self improvement over time. They’ll figure out how to incorporate free speech into a culture that has never enjoyed it. They’ll learn to want freedom of religion despite having never experienced it before. But they won’t just adopt the US Constitution and call it a day – they’ll make those values uniquely their own in ways we can’t even guess at yet.

Sure, mistakes will be made. That’s part of the improvement process. Welcome to Earth.

The world won’t be perfect. Humans don’t come in that size. Evolution is a myth – sure, things change but they don’t necessarily get better. To do that requires intent. People have to want to make things better and have a clue what better looks like.

We can help. We kinda have to – helping is in our American Boy Scout blood. But our greatest contribution is as an example, warts and all. Look gang, this freedom stuff works! Heck, it works despite how often we mess it up! Give it a try!

We’re the one and only America. But the world doesn’t have to move here or try to be us to borrow what we’ve learned and use it for themselves. We can’t take all the huddled masses but we can help other nation-states find ways to build free, secure and prosperous lives of their own. Instead of taking all the teeming masses, we can help the world build for itself what we have so they don’t have huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Borrowing our best doesn’t mean becoming us. Of course, the Rugby Africa Cup will take some getting used to, but they still think our football is weird.

Bet they don’t even have a halftime show!