Sinister: nationalism

[Barrett R]

The Duke, usually a man of infinite wisdom, wrote:

> one of the biggest things i hated about scotland, and the one maybe most 
to
> blame for making me move was the nationalist fervour inherent in too many 
of
> the people.

I'm surprised to hear this.  I was lucky enough to be over in Edinburgh for 
the Festival last year, and the Referendum for Devolution was on at the 
time.  I couldn't get over how many people weren't interested at all, or how 
many people were saying on the telly that they were voting no because they 
might have to pay an extra penny in the pound tax for a parliament.  A small 
price to pay for having your own say, I would have thought.

>  nationalism is a dreadful trait to have...

Only if it's at the expense of others,  I'm very proud to be Irish, I even 
try and speak the (dying) native language from time to time.  But this does 
not make me anti-English.  I most certainly am not.  I love the place, love 
the bands, love the TV, love the football.  Being proud of where you're from 
doesn't mean that you're a terrorist or a hooligan or whatever.

> I hate the world cup not because i have little interest in soccer but 
because of the     > dreadful attitudes it brings out in people, and because 
it encourages those
 > nationalist tendencies in the youth, who by rights we should be educating 
to
 > be more tolerant

The only "dreadful attitudes" I've seen have been from a couple of hundred 
NF tossers.  This shouldn't be allowed to ruin the rest of the tournament. 
 To me the last week has been a celebration of different cultures.  The most 
wonderful sight of the world cup has been Nigeria stuffing Spain despite 
their "defensive naivety" (thank you Ron, Kevin, etc).  Why shouldn't those 
people feel proud of what their countrymen had done against the odds?  It 
was the same for me when Ireland beat Italy in the last World Cup.  Sure we 
were terrible to watch, and half the team were Anglos anyway, but I still 
felt as proud as hell and it didn't inspire me to go out and smash some 
windows.  I was in Italy at the time, and all the Italians came over and 
shook our hands after the game.

Having said all that, I can understand part of what The Duke is trying to 
say.  Nationalism in the "Our country is better than yours" sense can be 
pretty ugly stuff, I wouldn't like to give the impression that I'm in favour 
of that kind of thing.

Sorry if this has bored the arse off you all.  I did have to read about 
Dangermouse for a week though.

Ronandinho.
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