I find the idea of being proud of what you were born into inevitably to be in a way sort of silly. Pride seems to imply feeling achievement for something, what did one achieve by being American, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, English, Canadian, Mexican, etc? what did one achieve being black, white, Asian, or Hispanic? What did one achieve woman, man, transgendered, transsexual, hermaphrodite? What did one achieve being homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, etc? You could argue they achieved being able to live on in a world of prejudice for whom they are. I do think being proud of what you were born into is a bit silly still, as there is no reason to be proud of that in and of itself, just striving through prejudice, there is no achievement of simply being these things but how you lived your life regardless. However I don't think pride in this situation is meant to feel like as though they have achieved necessarily by being these things, but merely to not feel ashamed. One whom looks down on themselves for these things have less pride than that of one whom thinks it makes no difference on who they are as a human being, thus I don't think "pride" applies to the majority like it does to minorities. To these people pride doesn't mean that their sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, race, etc makes them better, pride means to not feel ashamed or insecure about it. In their shoes the meaning of "pride" means something different to them through relativity. Just as the survival means something different to the man trapped on an uninhabited island than a working man in society.

It is not too bad to be a bit proud of your country, but it musn't be taken to extremes. Class, more than nationality, it really what separates us all. As time progresses, these class divides should ultimately fall, then the fabric of our society will change. This is because we do not know what will happen to the nations.

I think it is the philosophy to toot your own horn when someone is proud about something.