Well guys, I don't even know how to start
this video because I think the
topic is a little complicated, but I was
thinking about making this video for a long time,
but I was procrastinating
and procrastinating until I received
some messages and read some
comments on the video I posted
two weeks ago,
the one in which I was wearing the Argentinian jersey
and then, I couldn't stand it anymore and
I decided that it was time to talk about it.
The first thing I'd like to
say, and I know you already know this, but
we often forget or end up
not thinking about this, is that the
division of Earth in countries is a
social construct and that means that the
division doesn't exist by itself, but
it's man-made.
The second thing is that we don't
choose the country we're born, right? We're
simply born and then, when we grow up
a little, we find out that
we have a nationality and that
we belong to a certain group.
But the most important thing is that just because
you were born in a certain country,
you end up spending your whole life, or
most of your life, immersed in the culture
of that country
and that culture becomes
familiar to you and you end up
creating emotional ties with that culture.
And a cool analogy is when
you hear a song for the first
time. Sometimes, you hear a song and
you don't like it very much, but then, you
hear it a few times on the radio and you
end up liking that song, right?
The song becomes
familiar to you.
And the culture of our
country is so familiar to us, and
so pleasant, and so normal, we
identify ourselves so much with that culture
that often we end up feeling
proud of it, right? And that's patriotism and
I, particularly, don't see any problem
in being a patriot.
The problem appears when:
1. We start to think that our country and our
culture is superior to that of others, which
is nationalism, right? Or
2. When we
blindly accept all elements
of our culture as normal, never
questioning them
and even attack people who
question them, saying that they're
traitors to the country or something like that.
So, for instance, there's this
rivalry between Brazil and Argentina
which most Brazilians accept
as something normal, maybe even to the extreme
by believing that if you're Brazilian,
you must feel this rivalry
against Argentina, but it isn't like that, right guys?
Being Brazilian is not synonymous
with feeling rivalry against Argentina,
not even in soccer,
that was created and no one
has to buy into that if you don't want to,
so, if I wear the Argentinian jersey,
that doesn't mean I'm less
Brazilian, that I'm less patriotic or that
I don't like Brazil,
that simply means that I
chose not to buy into
one element among many elements of Brazilian
culture.
Another thing that I also think
is related to this discussion is the
issue of false dilemma or false
dichotomy which I talked about a
little in this video
that I'll link to above.
But in terms of
nationality, more specifically, it's
about that old story of
us versus
them
you're either with us
or you're with them.
Ok, but what if I want to belong to both groups?
Can't I?
And it's this division
of us vs. them that create so much conflict
in the world and no one has to, and, in
my opinion, no one should buy into
that kind of thinking.
The other day, I read a comment by an
Argentinian calling me a hipocrite
because I've made a video talking about the
things I love about Argentina,
but in another video, I also said that
I love Spain.
Does it always have to be one or another?
Can't I love Brazil, Argentina,
Spain, and the United States?
Does that mean that
I'm a hypocrite? Does that mean that I'm
less Brazilian or that I'm not a patriot?
Like me,
I think most Brazilians are
patriotic and love their culture, but I
know one Brazilian in particular
who doesn't relate to Brazilian culture at all,
he doesn't like
carnival, he doesn't like parties, he doesn't
like Brazilian music, he even dislikes
the Portuguese language and he
relates way more to French culture.
And he has the right to feel that way, after all he
didn't choose to be Brazilian,
none of us chose our
nationality.
Summing up this whole discussion, what I
really wanted to say is that you and I
have every right to
love Brazil, to dislike Brazil,
to love Brazil and love other
2, 5, 10, 50 countries.
My love is not delimited by borders.
And yours?
"Our true nationality is mankind" - H. G. Wells