Where in the world do you belong?
28/08/08 19:31 Filed in: Nationalism
Frequently, I sit down to write a blog posting then end up writing something other than which I intended originally. Today might be one of those days!
The other day, I received an email message off the bottom of the page here, from someone who had been reading my blogs.
It made me crease up with laughter and may have something to do with why many other nations in the world think of the English as pompous or arrogant. He was English. He wrote, “You write well for an American…” I decided to play him along for a while, for the sheer sport and fun of doing so. But it made me think about what I feel and think about the world I inhabit, and whether I feel a strong sense of belonging to somewhere other than the world in general.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am British, English to be precise. That is how my passport defines me. I also hold a green card and have US rights of residency. I love many things English. I have family and friends there too. But going back to my blog commentator, I have very strong attachments to the USA and to France where I live presently.
My attachment to the USA runs deep, since there live two young people, three now, one of whom, Meagan, shares my beliefs and my values about the world, uses my vocabulary, has an American accent and sometimes calls me Dad! There is also a very new young citizen of the world called Eva who calls me Grandpa. Goodness, does that make me feel old! (You can see them here. )Those bonds of love mean far more than any sense of national identity to me. Those young people, their world, their wellbeing and their future cause me to feel passionately about what happens in the USA as well as Europe.
If I reflect fully on my own background, it makes nonsense of any form of nationalism. I have more living family relatives in Canada than I do in the UK. I have other family relatives scattered throughout Europe and beyond.
So what's this about? It’s a prologue to my next post.
I've been thinking about a question I often ask myself when I’m being critical. It goes, “Okay, so now you’ve told us what you're against, but what are you for?”
I’ve written many blog posts that are critical of the economic and social systems that exist in our world right now. I have a very incomplete, maybe badly thought through, patchy idea of some better way of doing things. It’s so half-baked that any social and political philosopher might drill holes through it at a distance of a hundred miles. In the comments on my last post, we talked about a minimal state and a new role for communities. But it made me think. What would my community look like when it crosses so many national boundaries? What do national boundaries mean other than being a line in the earth? What real purpose do they serve? Might the world be better without them?
What do you say?
The other day, I received an email message off the bottom of the page here, from someone who had been reading my blogs.
It made me crease up with laughter and may have something to do with why many other nations in the world think of the English as pompous or arrogant. He was English. He wrote, “You write well for an American…” I decided to play him along for a while, for the sheer sport and fun of doing so. But it made me think about what I feel and think about the world I inhabit, and whether I feel a strong sense of belonging to somewhere other than the world in general.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am British, English to be precise. That is how my passport defines me. I also hold a green card and have US rights of residency. I love many things English. I have family and friends there too. But going back to my blog commentator, I have very strong attachments to the USA and to France where I live presently.
My attachment to the USA runs deep, since there live two young people, three now, one of whom, Meagan, shares my beliefs and my values about the world, uses my vocabulary, has an American accent and sometimes calls me Dad! There is also a very new young citizen of the world called Eva who calls me Grandpa. Goodness, does that make me feel old! (You can see them here. )Those bonds of love mean far more than any sense of national identity to me. Those young people, their world, their wellbeing and their future cause me to feel passionately about what happens in the USA as well as Europe.
If I reflect fully on my own background, it makes nonsense of any form of nationalism. I have more living family relatives in Canada than I do in the UK. I have other family relatives scattered throughout Europe and beyond.
So what's this about? It’s a prologue to my next post.
I've been thinking about a question I often ask myself when I’m being critical. It goes, “Okay, so now you’ve told us what you're against, but what are you for?”
I’ve written many blog posts that are critical of the economic and social systems that exist in our world right now. I have a very incomplete, maybe badly thought through, patchy idea of some better way of doing things. It’s so half-baked that any social and political philosopher might drill holes through it at a distance of a hundred miles. In the comments on my last post, we talked about a minimal state and a new role for communities. But it made me think. What would my community look like when it crosses so many national boundaries? What do national boundaries mean other than being a line in the earth? What real purpose do they serve? Might the world be better without them?
What do you say?
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