To me, pride and shame are personal things and come as the result of my own volition and my own actions. And, pompous ass that I am, I apply my own principle to others.

If I make a good choice and do something fine, brilliant, and beneficial, I can feel proud of my accomplishment. If I totally screw up and cause all kinds of problems, then I have good reason to feel shame. But:—

My father's lineage is Scottish, my mother's is Swedish. Am I proud of my lineage? Kind of, in a way, but when it comes down to it, I had nothing to do with it. It was not a matter in which I had any choice, therefore, how can I claim credit for it and be "proud" of the fact? My response to those who loudly trumpet "I'm proud to be (fill in ethnicity or national origin of choice)!" is "That's very nice, but what have you done lately?" Same thing with shame. Why should I, or anyone, feel ashamed of something over which we have no control? I campaign, I write, I yell my head off, and I vote. I didn't vote for Bush and I didn't vote for a lot of the people who got elected this time. Quite apart from how one judges Bush's actions or the actions of the American government in general, why should I, or any other American be ashamed of something over which we personally have little or no control--or of the fact that we were born (through no choice or effort on our own part) in a particular area of the world?

The question itself displays the philosophical myopia of the person asking it.

Don Firth