Patriotism

What country is the most patriotic? I bet it is the lowest shithole on the planet, somewhere in central Africa. It seems the goodness of a country is inversely related to how patriotic the people are there. I always thought America was way overboard with the patriotism, flag waving, national anthem and stuff. However much we love our country, we hate our politicians and leaders though, which gives me hope for our sanity. Well, living in Taiwan, nothing much is changed. People like Taiwan OK I guess, but are far less patriotic, and still hate the politicians. Actually their patriotism is very weak, they are not very sure what their country should be. Should they model after Japan, China, America, or just be themselves. Not sure. But most will agree the best way to succeed is to get out and go to Canada and America, even thought they have it pretty goof over here. Then I went to Thailand. They love their country, and they love their king. They have more flags up and pictures of the king everywhere then I have ever seen. They play the freakin national anthem before movies for God's sake! They love their stupid king. Now to be fair he is a pretty fair dude, and he seems to have been working to improve the lot of the poor people. But I ask you this: if the king is so smart, why do you drive on the wrong side of the road. It is completely archaic in the 21st century to be ruled by a king. Why is this so bad if he helps poor people? Because he has too much power behind the scenes and has built a cult of personality. Recently he decided that the newly re-elected Prime Minister was gaining too much popularity and was a threat so he authorized a military coup to take him out. Nothing much changed, but democracy is severly undermined by such things, and this is the problem with having a king and a democracy. And because of his cult of personality, the people love him, and since he said the coup was OK, everybody got on board and said that it was a good thing, even though they had just elected the other guy! Ugh. Stupid stupid stupid. I think the only countries that have been cured of patriotism is western europe because of the war they learned the hard way that it just don't pay. The King is dead, long live the King!