Blind Patriotism - Things Aren't So Black and White

With the World Cup in South Africa looming on the horizon and the chance of English (and indeed any other nationality) people to gain an excuse to become hooligans and idiots temporarily I thought I would do a blog post on blind patriotism.
First off, the definition of patriotism: Patriotism is the love of and/or the devotion to one's country. (Wikipedia.org). Doesn't that sound admirable? Indeed, the words devotion and love are very strong words and are usually connected to deeds that benefit society. However, over time, the definition of patriotism has changed. Political parties like the BNP (British National Party), and UKIP (UK Independence Party) have started taking matters too far, to the extent that people are striving to conform to stereotypes that fit with a certain country's image, that people are encouraging racism towards people that do not conform to this image. There are, however, sinister sides to this image and different stereotypes connected to the UK (and other nations). Such as the thuggish and drunk view on English people, the idea that all Americans are fat, the idea that all French people eat cheese constantly, the list goes on. So, if we start encouraging and enforcing stereotypes then what's to stop people from considering that stereotypes are okay, that they can start labelling countries and their populace as displaying certain traits. If we encourage the use of stereotyping, what's to stop people from bringing in their own, negative stereotypes?
Secondly, stereotyping in itself, even to the extent that it is widely seen as a positive stereotype is not a good thing as people can be too busy striving to conform to this "positive" stereotype and therefore will use it as an excuse for violence, uncivilised behaviour and general disregard of any logic. They will take the stereotype to extremes and when presented with a more logical alternative, will disregard it entirely. For example, people blatantly disregarding the damage of one of the two world wars and taking an attitude of "We won, who cares", people disregarding the fact that somebody may have made mistakes under pressure and losing all respect for the person's success because they can't be bothered to think about it properly and in their mind they messed up so they're an idiot. This is not a good way to think! We should be individual in the way we think, not conforming to national stereotypes. British people shouldn't go on about the second world war (or the first) as if it was won from the start and that it was easy, that the German people were all idiots and got pounded, that whatever the cost we won and that was that. Things aren't so black and white - there isn't a line  dividing wrong and right that says "if you think about people who have done wrong too much and admire them for their success you will be killed"  is their? No, their isn't. So, try thinking about things, things you considered obvious, and think, "Is it that obvious really?"