Originally posted here by Guus
To lots of americans, patriotism is almost a kind of religion, that scares me. Some people tend to abuse religions - that scares me even more.
Well, the country is less than four hundred years old and is founded on a bunch of cultures and religions. I guess the lack of original "americanism" makes people stick together and defend their newly founded country with whatever they got.

The US as a concept is a rather interesting thing because it is the newest country based on european civilisation, yet it has completely taken over the world. American culture invade every part of our everyday life and kids in school gave up their english accent years ago in favour of the much cooler american accent as heard on tv.

I do however think that America is a truly magnificent nation in several different ways and I think the american way to celebrate freedom is healty. I enjoy the same freedom of speech and freedom of press as any american but I take my freedom for granted and I think it is dangerous to do so.