BBC Article.

I think it's pathetic. We should be encouraged to be proud of who we are, especially being British. We had the biggest Empire in history, what's not to be proud of? 'Morally ambiguous' my arse.

If they are not proud of their heritage and culture, then they do not deserve to be here. I know its a short answer, but it sums up my views nicely.

What Plant said; you should be proud of who you are, especially British.
I know I am happy to say I have a little British in me.

Einstein stated that Nationalism was the measles of mankind. I'd say that it's more of the Aids of mankind. And when we finally cure Aids, it'll have evolved to whatever incurable disease exists after that.

The way I see it, it doesn't matter at all what a country was in the past. People at that time could be proud of what they'd achieved same as you can be proud of whatever things you achieve. Realistically, what has the British empire actually achieved us? A load of countries in civil war, a couple of colonies who more or less ridicule us with every action they take and the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which are crumbling around us. Will it take being left with the United Kingdoms of England and Wales to finally kill off British patriotism? Because if so, we fortunately only have to wait a few decades and we're finally there.

There's plenty we can learn from the past, but that's no need to build it up into some golden era which we should attempt to relive. When people think of the British empire they simply think of the great span of it, without bothering to think that the majority of people lived well below the poverty line, that only the wealthiest in society were allowed to vote and that the entirety of the empire was built on slavery and exploitation.

When you talk of teaching of the British Empire, you talk about the jingoism of the late 19th/early 20th centuries, wherein it was the white British who were bringing culture all around the world, rarely mentioning the scores of Asians who fought in the British Indian Army during the British Raj or the Canadians of the 100th Regiment of Foot. Do you really think it's right to teach children of the inferiority of Martial Races such as the Gurkhas in a society that now strives to be tolerant of all races? If you do, we might as well preach of the qualities of eugenics to school children.

I do actually find it fairly amusing that you, Plant, are so in favour of patriotism, a nation which places it's faith in God, racial superiority and a nation which steals languages when you seem so opposed to all of those values in the case of the United States. Such hypocrisy is entirely why I'm opposed to nationalism: you simply end up believing in double standards wherein your own nation is allowed to perform such acts whereas others are simply lesser. On the off chance that you don't understand where I draw any of these points from, in order: Jingoism, God save the Queen, "Dieu et mon droit" and all of the above.

1. (not to be finicky) But we (in the always correct US) have been taught that the largest empire to date was the Mongol under the Khans
2. There is a fine line between patriotism and xenophobias. I am careful not to cross from the first into the second. Be proud of what your country has accomplished and ashamed of what it has done wrong.

I looked it up on wikipedia (where else?), and I found that the British slightly edged out the Mongols in peak size of empire. Source

The Mongols did have the largest contiguous empire however, which is a bit obvious, considering that a good chunk of the British empire was in North America.

Interestingly enough, the "American Empire" from 1898-1934 comes in at #9 on the list.

Christ, Rob.

Overall, I agree with you (Rob) on this one. Give the children the facts, as straight as possible, and let them decide what they should/shouldn't be proud of.

And Iljets, the 'American Empire' as they call it, never really expanded to its full potential, because the Spanish and English were both there on either side of them.

That wikipedia article might be sort of misleading, if they are counting what the British claimed was theres, as opposed to what they really controlled. Heck, they said that any land off of the Mississippi, or tributaries of the Miss, or anything connected to that, was their land. Well... that wasn't really the case now was it. That was only their statement given their belief that they could claim any lands owned by the 'savage' Native Americans to be their own.

But hell, lets not turn this debate into a discussion of who was a larger empire when and where... thats impossible to measure if you are counting anything important such as global power and influence, and 'Market Share' Size is relatively unimportant when you consider other factors of what makes up the "Greatest Empire".

Oh, I'm all in favour of patriotism, but not to an extent in that you believe that your country can do no wrong and is always right, which seems to be what is happening in many parts of the U.S today.

I'm not proud of Britain now, but I'm proud that I belong to the country that controlled the biggest Empire this planet has ever seen and was at the head of technological and scientific development for a good few centuries. I see nothing wrong in being proud of that.

Was the biggest. Were at the front of technological advancement. That's great. I'm sure it comforts many an old man with arthritis to know that he was once young and healthy.

It took us centuries to achieve our Empire. The US empire is currently larger and has taken less time to achieve. Japan is decades ahead of us technologically and it took them less time to achieve.

In the future, there will be larger empires than anything that has gone before and there will be greater advancement than anything that can have gone before.

The very nature of development is that greater things will inevitably come in the future. There's no point in looking backwards because you'll never see what's coming, nor will you ever be able to appreciate what is around you at any time. All that'll happen is that you'll wake up one morning; an arthritic old man reminiscing about your own golden years.

i think that being a patriout is great as long as you dont get worked up over it you have to understand where the line is and apreasiate diversity other wise it can lead to xenophobia as silver said.

so i belive that patriotism is fine as long as its understood that it should only be held as an opion and not fact and that everyone respects eachothers choice in thier indervidual opion rather than being cort up and race riots and such.

I like Brasil and no1 teached me to like it , i think teaching such things in schools arent needed . People can choose to like the country or not

Whether the U.S empire is larger is a matter of perspective and what you actually define the current empire as.

I don't think there will be larger empires in the future. As we develop, the need for a World Government will become more apparent and eventually, there will be only one 'country' on this planet. Whether or not you define that as an empire or not I don't know.

If we do not look backwards, how are we to learn from our mistakes? Ofcourse it is not wise to dwell on what was, but it is wise to look back and study history so that we may learn for the future and if whilst studying you happen to find your country was, at one point, the most powerful on the planet, why not be proud? Why can we not be proud of what we as individuals and as a country have achieved? You are telling me that when you are on your death bed, you will not think about what you have done and achieved in your life?

Like all things, patriotism is only good in small doses. Of course, excessive patriotism is never good, like most things in the world.

I'm proud to be French and I may sometimes refer to past French accomplishments to show there's a reason for me to be proud. However, I won't deny that we've screwed up before.

So really, being proud of your country isn't really abnormal. It's like being proud of an object you created. If you brag about it or thinkn too much about it, you become an annoyance to others.

Oh, and while I'm responding to this. Funny thing about Einstein's quote right there is that there could be a bit of biased opinion behind considering he was a Jewish German during World War II.

Now I'm not a particularly patriotic person, to be honest I can't stand Britain today, Americas number 1 groupie, but I am proud of what we were and of my heritage. For example, without our empire India would be no way near what it is today, we built the railways which India revolves around.

I don't think extreme patriotism helps anyone and only helps create things like the BNP (British National party - A bunch of racists) but I do think that you should respect your heritage and your nations history.

Exactly. Just like I said before, it's perfectly respectful to feel a certain honor towards what your country has achieved as long as you recognize that it's not perfect, that you're not blinded by it. Just like for me, I know the French have political groups which are pretty much founded around the principal of discrimination.

I'm 100% Polish. I live in America.

In school one day, I got into a littel trouble with a teacher over the fact that I don't salute the flag every morning.

That's my little story. Patriotism is fine, but sometimes people are too serious about it.