If the national anthem were not sung at professional sporting events, would you care?

Agreed.
We have become a DO THE BARE MINIMUM society

"I'm a patriot!! I didn't burn a flag . . .see!! That's patriotism"

Rocket River

 

The NHL Stanley Cup, for example, plays both national anthems for USA and Canada. The weird awkward part of this is an U.S.-based hockey team with half of its roster who are Canadian-born and European-born while a Canadian-based hockey team with half of its roster who are American-born and European-born.

Another one is the European Champions League soccer tournament. For example, they don't play the national anthems of England and Spain when Manchester United or Chelsea are against Real Madrid or Barcelona.

 

The national anthems of Mexico and Brazil start at 4:50. They played the Mexican anthem very short for only 20 seconds while they played the Brazilian anthem for a very long time.

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The Natural, yes with Robert Redford, was on TV the other day and I caught a bit of it; anyway, there's a scene where before the game the crowd is singing the national anthem; not singing along with some low level celebrity but actualy singing the song, the ballplayers (actors) were singing it and also the fans were all singing it.

I thought to myself, that would actually be a pretty moving spectacle to be involved in singing the anthem, hearing the anthem, like that. It would be much prefered to listening to season six 4th runner up on American Idol try to get five more minutes of fame by singing it.

Maybe it's just me, I don't know.

 

Gobbly-gook you speak.

 

"I'm a patriot!!! I hang a flag from my lawn! I stand-up for 3 minutes at sporting events!!! I don't do the bare minimum, I sacrifice $2.99 for the flag and 3 minutes standing when i could be resting my tush!!!! Them people who who spend all their time trying to use the democratic process to make a point and change laws - they are all a bunch of lazy communists!"

 

Patriotism in my mind is what leads to global conflict and hatred. I think it really burns that us vs. them mentality and creates a mindset that is not conducive to an ever increasing globally interconnected community. Look at how many people generalize and start hating people based on their nationalities. Religion in my mind also creates a similar effect.

 

Internal instability, poverty and a demand for resources are what provoke wars; you're just critiquing groups.

 

Lots of people do both, I don't see how those two things could possibly be mutually or even marginally exclusive.

 

You know, you and I both know you can do this all day long.

Have fun!