mmm... By the moment, the only one who seems to
have ranted irrationally is you. I can see your sense of Canadianity is
comparable to my patriotic romanticism, as you seem to be very upset about
confusing (???) Canadians with USans. It's because of your wrong use of the word
American. My sentece "Are you an American or something?" means Canadian, USan,
Mexican, Argentinian, Chilen, Peruvian... so don't get too angry about that.
Maybe it's because of my poor english, perhaps, that we have some communication
problems... Anyway, I'm happy to see that you agree that nationalism is
something natural.
About that "it's a feeling so it's not reliable for
science" theory of yours, I recommend you to read something more about economic
theory and social sciences. You will notice that nationalism and patriotism are
not as romanticist as you think. Again, just take a look at nature. Animals keep
their territory free of strangers and under their rule not because of
"wishywashy emotion" but for economical reasons. And so do we. As I said before,
the only difference between animals and us in this issue, is that our brain
is much more complex that theirs and has unique features like speech (languages
are a very important economic factor: who must I be together with? With
that who speaks like me so we can be more efficient about controlling resources
and protecting from strangers? Or with that who I can't understand so we'll
probably get in trouble soon?). Finally, I'd like you to see that it's people
coming from "regular" countries like yours (I mean
"nobody-doubts-of-our-existence-as-a-nation" countries) those who hold archaic
and old-fashioned views about nationalism, as they don't have to think about
this issue, and, as a consequence, there's a sector of their own population who
looks at nationalism as an ugly, stupid thing (like everithing that hasn't been
altered for 200 years), that is, in this case, you. In countries with "national
troubleness" like mine, nationalism is a renewal force that struggles for social
and political change, often more associated to progressive politics that to
conservative. In Catalonia, Scotland or the Basque Country, for instance,
nationalism means change, while in England, Spain or France, it means
regression.
And one more thing, in case you are against the
very concept of nation, what do you propose, then? Clans? Families? Isolated
individuals? How do you keep this way of live you have? This whole system?
without nations? (and I'm not stating anything, just asking...)
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 2:51
AM
Subject: [tied] Scientific
Nationalism?
Obviously I've touched a raw nerve in Che's central nervous
system
which may be more prone to patriotic romanticism than
I:
>Glenny, are you an American or something...?
Canadian
actually. Canada is a little different from the States in
terms of culture
and there is much less "religious patriotism"
than often exists south of
the border. Patriotism is the love of
one's country. Love is an emotion. A
country is an inanimate object.
Emotions are not logical, and certainly at
the very least, the
obsessive love of an inanimate object is a good enough
reason for
therapy.
Now, nationalism is natural alright. It's full
of human wishywashy
emotion that gets in the way of logic. It has existed
through
the sands of time and will do so for times to come. The
naturalness
of nationalism is irrelevant, however.
Science and
theory are best served by avoiding personal prejudices.
Therefore,
nationalism, a fun pasttime for those who so wish to
spend their personal
time, has no place in science and theory. That
last sentence is simply not
open to debate.
I'm not terribly concerned about who you *think* I am,
how well
you think you can guess my views before consulting me first on
them,
or whether I fit your stereotypical mould of immigrants
in
Barcelona. Your rant about anthropocentric views on chimpanzees
i
introduces more irrelevance to this discussion.
In all, your
assumptions of me are irrational. This debate so far
is suggesting the
beginnings of a problematic dialogue quickly
turning monologue. Be warned,
Che.
-------------------------------------------------
gLeNny
gEe
...wEbDeVEr gOne bEsErK!
home: http://glen_gordon.tripod.com
email:
glengordon01@...
-------------------------------------------------
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