Patriotism in the WW?

[adsong16]

No: HPFGUIDX 83721

Melissa McCarthy <risako at n...> wrote:
> 
> So, is there patriotism at all in the WW?  Is an individual's first loyalty to his/her 
country as against other countries; does he see him/herself first as a subject or 
citizen of his/her country and then as a wizard/witch?  It's possible that patriotism 
matters in the WW, at least somewhat; the example of Seamus suggests this.  Or is 
he/she primarily loyal to the WW?  The second possibility seems more likely to me 
because of the history of wizard persecution by Muggles.  This could be another 
reason for pureblood wizards to dislike the presence of Muggle-born students at 
Hogwarts, since a Muggle-born might have been taught loyalty to England and 
certainly wouldn't have been taught loyalty to the Wizarding World.  Perhaps someday 
we'll see a Muggle-born student struggling with this question.  Of course, this 
doesn't explain Seamus; perhaps patriotism is an issue in some countries but not in 
others.  If that's true, though, there goes my half-formed theory about Muggle-borns' 
possible patriotism being a reason for purebloods to distrust them.  Am I just 
overthinking this?  Ideas? thoughts? smacks with a wet noodle?
> 

Now me:
Well, in the real world people have many identities, sometimes conflicting with each 
other. It's just one of those things people deal with. Patriotism is a feeling related to 
belonging to a group, a community of all the other people who are also from the 
same nation as one is. Wizarding pride would be another such feeling related to 
belonging to another group. As the other respondents to your question have noted, 
there seems to be a fair amount of shows of such patriotism going on. (an example 
that hasn't been mentioned is Hagrid's admonition against 'foreigners' in GoF). I think 
that as long as those two identities were not in conflict, they wouldn't play out in 
every day life. 
The issue of blood in the WW seems to me to be unrelated to national origin or 
patriotism, other wise I think Malfoy or someone like that might have mentioned it at 
some point (such as "hey Granger why don't you go sing God Save the Queen 
somewhere else" or somethign to that effect...)

Gorda