Good post..but the easiest defence ever is to accuse people of not being as "whatever" as you you are..its a psycological statement of reassurence that even if I'm wrong..and I know it, I'm not going to admit it..because I'm more "whatever" than you are, and you not agreeing with me makes you less "whatever" because I'm always right..although deep inside I know I'm not!

If I understand you correctly I believe that you are talking about patriotism, meaning that are you more patriot, less patriot, or not patriot at all when you question some actions by your government that don’t appear to be suitable as far as you are concerned. And if I want to delve deeper I would say that this post stemmed from the recent negative comments that were made about the treatment of the Iraqis arriving at QAIA. Patriotism in my opinion has to do with the amount of contribution that the person makes in his field of specialization. It doesn’t matter what field one is involved in, even the person that sweeps the street and pick up the people’s refuse, if he do his job in a sincere fashion by picking up all of the debris in his assigned area and do his job according to his job description, then he is the greatest patriot to me and deserves my utmost respect. So I personally equate patriotism with contribution to the over all society, one can’t tell me that he is a patriot and at the same time he never contributed anything to the country that he calls home. Grant you some people try to take patriotism to the extreme level and start referring to themselves as more patriot than this or that person. To those I say list for me your contributions to your country for the last five to ten years of your life. Did you participate in any volunteer work! Did you contribute to charitable organizations! Did you mentor any youth organization! Did you vote in the most recent election! Did you help in beautifying your city, town, or neighborhood! Did you project a positive image in order for you to enhance the negative view about your culture, your religion, and your society as whole before foreign dignitaries! Patriotism or lack of it is a relative term, you can’t gauge it very easily, and there is no specific bench mark that you can pursue in order for you to obtain an A in patriotism. Everybody think of themselves as patriot. The question remains is: what do you do to prove your patriotism, and my simple answer is by your own specialized contribution in whatever field of your choosing.

Q, don't bother. these are regime scum. they don't defend jordan, they defend the regime that pays them in cash and gives them undeserved privileges while others who are more deserving rot. that's why they wave the flag whenever you criticize the regime failures, because you are actually criticizing their parents, brothers, friends, who are regime soldiers.  the truth, and they know it all too well, jordan and Jordanians are one thing, the regime (they are part of it) is another thing. these people could care less for Jordan's image. if they did, they would not have benefited from the corruption, they would not have tolerated bad policies that harm jordan, they woudl not defend what most Jordanians find indefensible.  NO one elected them to speak on our behalf. they are here because they have big guns and they will harm you if you try to defend Jordan from them.