National Identity

[poliphilo]

Nationhood is a modern idea. No older than the 16th century. But already it's out-of-date. In a world of cultural fluidity and mass migration and cheap travel and the internet it makes no sense to give your loyalty to some more or less arbitrarily designed geographical entity. I'm English. But what is England? I have tried (very hard) to define Englishness for myself- and it always seems to come down to Morris dancing and cream teas. And Shakespeare. Never forget Shakespeare. But Shakespeare belongs to the world, no-one wants our Morris-men and cream teas are disgusting. The best things about any nation get taken up world-wide and only the silliest, most trivial things are left behind to define it. In reality the English are a people who eat curry and watch American movies. Nationhood is a idea that holds us back, that makes us timid, and it's time we outgrew it.

Comments

[archyena.livejournal.com]

I think that follows from trying to find a classically nationalist rationale of "people who share the same culture and language." Nations are increasingly propositional in nature, embodying sets of values and guarantees at law. That said, in many ways the ease of travel, the development moving along in the third world, and the globalization of cultures is creating a sort of international federal system. The point of nations now seems to be to offer alternatives to one another, give up one thing in exchange for another. The individual (at the logical end of these developments) could choose amongst the options to find the nation that best suits them, not unlike someone deciding to move to another city.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Like moving from Oklahoma to NYC? Yeah, I'll buy that. Don't get me wrong, I like living in England. It's as civilised as any place on the map, but sometimes the tweeness and dinkiness of everything gets to me. Right now we have this fuss over the new European Union constitution. People are carrying on like England will cease to exist if we sign it. This guy (some conservative politician) was warning us that the royal family would go and the Westminster parliament would go and I was punching the air and shouting, "yes!"

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting. I'm a Texan, and Texas, I think, is the king of nationalism, even if we aren't technically our own nation (which doesn't me we couldn't be one, we just don't want to be...yet). Any true Texan would die a thousand times for the Lonestar state, against all enemies, foreign, domestic or even *gasp* yankee. I doubt they would feel the same way for fighting for the USA.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The first movie I ever loved- I would have been 9 when I saw it- was John Wayne's The Alamo.

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

Me too. Well, John Wayne was the first man other than my grandfather that I ever loved. I have an 8 x 10 publicity still of him hanging by my desk. My great^nth grandfather was Davy Crockett.

I only found that out two years ago, and had been to the Alamo maybe a half dozen times before that, and every time I set foot on the grounds I just wept and wept. Sometimes I would make a special trip from Austin to San Antone (about an hour away) just to visit it. Sort of bizarre behavior for a non-native Texan.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's amazing. I'm talking to a living descendant of Davy Crockett. I can't believe it. One of the first books I ever owned was a Davy Crockett story-book. And I grew up singing

"Davy, Davy Crockett,
King of the wild frontier."

And then of course there was the John Wayne movie. It moved me so much. Seeing as how I'm an upright English gentleman, I used to identify with Travis (as incarnated by Laurence Harvey.) The way he breaks his sword over his knee before dropping dead was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

John Wayne and John Ford- I love those guys. Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers. Ah me!