silly nationalism

On the night of July 2, 2000 I ascended the Eiffel Tower in France. Everything was quiet and peaceful. Suddenly there was lots of noise from down below! I descended again and Paris was in the middle of a big celebration. France had just beaten Italy and won the 2000 European Football Championship. Will there be similar celebrations after this year's World Cup final? As an Australian, I hope to see Italy defeated :-)

I watched all the Australia matches because of the feeling of euphoria when we scored. I admit though, it makes sense to be proud of your country when it is small, but I find the nationalism of large countries kind of amusing. If someone says they are proud to be Chinese or Indian, particularly, I think "you are hardly special, coming from a country that makes up 1/5 or 1/6 of the world's population. Wouldn't it be more sensible to be proud of belonging to a smaller sub-group?". Perhaps what they are really proud of is some kind of values the country is perceived to have, like Indian parents in the US celebrating their children's success in the national spelling bee. That would make sense.