There have been a few "What does the world think of country X" threads on the offtopic forum lately. From reading them, and other threads about international politics, I've noticed that some people seem dissapointed that their country isn't nationalist enough.
The same trend seems to appear in the overall populations of quite a few countries when they are faced with the prospect of joining the EU. As for the Americans...well that has always seemed to be a bit more complicated, but you could call that patriotism I guess (or COULD you? I'm European so I might not have a good view on American nationalism, so feel free to correct me).
What I personally don't understand is: Why are people afraid of being considered political globalists or internationalists? Whats so bad about a world united under one banner? (I'm not saying I want the EU or the US to conquer the entire world).
I for one applaud the concept of the EU and would love to see all of Europe united under one banner, instead of all these small countries just being on friendly terms but constantly looking out for THEIR own interests over that of their neighbours. To take this further, if the US and whatever union or federation the European countries are gonna unite into, decide to one day merge to form some sort of "United states of the West" thing, I couldn't be happier. But this is a sentiment that seems to be considered bad nowadays...why? Whats so great about nationalism? Isn't it just a limiting point of view that looks only at your own interests and kinda says: "screw all you outsiders!"?