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Comment by adrianratnapala | Hacker News Reader

Thanks.

And I gotta love America, where professorial lectures are accomapnied by the national anthem and a military flag ceremony!

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This is a Jefferson Lecture, "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities." It happens once a year.

Well you don't become the largest democracy in the world by baking pies...

It's not even the largest

By population EU is larger than US

It's not even the oldest, probably Iceland is, its parliament was formed in 930 by Vikings.

How is large good in a democracy? Are the Netherlands worse because they are small?

*samosas

Are you saying the famed American apple pie hasn't been a major contributor to America's success?!

That is because America is not bound together by ethnicity or origin. We are not Americans because our ancestors have always lived in this place. What binds us together as Americans is the flag and patriotism. The flag and patriotism are supposed to transcend political boundaries. I for one think we as Americans need to emphasize what unites us and the flag and national anthem are two such things.

I'd say Constitution and the ideals behind it.

A big part of the "American Dream" is that you don't have to be of particular ethnicity; you have to play by some rules, and you have a chance to make it big.

For better or worse, the flag and anthem are representatives of the ideals and the Constitution. We are pretty nationalistic. That's not necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself.

You are correct. We are heavily inspired my Enlightenment philosophy, especially Hobbesian Social Contract theory. The Constitution is our Social Contract.

What you're describing as patriotism sounds like faith. Your flag is analogous to a cross or a star. Your national anthem sounds like prayers. Countries come across as religions.

I digress. It seems that democracy has been hacked many times over history (thanks OPs for all the links). Honestly, what would be a feasible alternative?

PS: Please do not bring up transparency; more of it won't solve it, we're being socially engineered at large scale.

Maybe uniting with humans in general is also a reasonable option.

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