"Cause i'm HAPPY to be an American, where at least I know i'm free. And I'd like to tell everyone about pride, and what pride means to meeeeee". A very poor take on the chorus of the popular song "God Bless the USA". I'm not proud of it.
So! what is pride? The first definition listed at [link] is "a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc." This is true to the definition that I had in mind. Pride is exceptionally commonplace, though I say it also causes the most problems in our society. Pride is not bad in itself, however, the problem arises when people become confused on what they should be prideful of. Take my song for example. I changed the word "proud" to "happy" because there is no reason I should be proud to be an American. Don't whip out your rifles and hunt me down in the streets just yet! Allow me to explain. I have done absolutely nothing to become an American. I was merely born here. I have nothing to be proud of in that any more than I should be proud of the fact that I just turned 22. Pride should be a term reserved for merit given to the source of the pride itself. As another example, I am proud of Thomas Edison for inventing the lightbulb; that does absolutely nothing to reflect on me, so I have no reason to be proud of it. "We" (as in those of us with white skin and who also speak english) did not invent the lightbulb, "he" (as in specifically Thomas Edison) did. "We" (as in those of us who are chinese) did not build the new Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing. They (as in the workers who built it and the architect who designed it [yes I know he was not chinese]) did. You see my point, I hope. People use and abuse pride in order to try and gain personal merit by separating themselves into smaller and smaller fractions of a human being. If I were prideful, I would not consider myself to be just a human being, I would be a male with brown, slightly wavy hair and brown eyes who plays the irish whistle and rides unicycles, etc. I am those things anyway, but I would use these factors to measure the worth of those around me in my everyday life, and choose which of them I am more attached to based on what I pride myself in. Of those factors that I mentioned, truly only being able to ride a unicycle or play the whistle are things I should be proud of. My hair is not my choice. My balls are not my choice. I can be HAPPY about either of them, if I want.
At this point, someone would ask me "what if I got a sex change? Does that mean I can be proud of it?" No. You didn't really do anything but fill out forms and pay for it, did you? The surgeon did all the work, and he is welcome to be proud of it. You can be proud of making the choice, if you want. I took a race and religion class in which a story targeted towards black females stated, towards the end: "so be proud of your nappy hair and black skin." No, don't be proud of that. The problem lies with pride in the first place! The stupid white skinned klan members should be LESS proud, if anything. Having many overly prideful sides at war with each other in everyday life is what is already occuring in American society, and bringing the entire country down. Asians are proud of their yellow skin, whites are proud of their white skin, blacks are proud of their black skin, and so on. There is nothing to be proud of! You have done nothing. You are all merely people, and your skills lie elsewhere. You are not "good" at being black, or yellow, or white. Faulting president Obama for "not being black enough" is prideful stupidity.
In conclusion, a German brewery being proud of their beer is fine! A German citizen who does not brew beer being proud of the brewery for their beer is even better. A total outsider being proud of the brewery for their beer is positively delightful! A German citizen being proud of himself for their beer, because he too is German, is just selfish. Be proud of yourself, and be proud of others, but make sure there is something to be proud of.


EDIT: It is likely that most readers will be too prideful to understand the logic, and merely get pissed off when their pride is challenged. I think that's ironic and deserves a lol.