Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Harald Meland]

[Pierce T.Wetter III]

> On Jul 19, 2004, at 12:10 AM, Patrick Mauritz wrote:
>
>> Am Montag, 19. Juli 2004 02:37 schrieb Pierce T.Wetter III:
>>>   How exactly are the Swedes and the Norweigans different again?
>> or the Americans and the Mexicans?
>
> See, I'm sure you're trying to make a point, but its not one I
> get...  Given the large number of people of Hispanic descent who
> live in America, there isn't any difference. Which is my point, that
> Americans have a very dim understanding of "tribal" differences.
>
> But I've talked to Swedes and Norweigans and they assure me there's
> some difference between them.  I've never been able to tell...

Actually, I think you just made Patrick's point.

Most of the time, the Swede/Norwegian difference isn't one that's
*meant* to be easy to "tell" -- at least not to "outsiders".  Most of
the time, we're interacting and cooperating nicely, and most of the
time we like it that way.

That doesn't mean that either of us at any time have relinquished the
*feeling* of belonging to a particular nation.

I think the same goes for the American/Mexican relationship.


If you try to distinguish between "Americans" and "Mexicans" by
people's appearance, you're likely to often get it wrong.  The same
goes for "Swedes" and "Norwegians".

I'd never be able to reliably tell the difference between "American"
or "Mexican" just by looking at two persons.  And, if both persons
spoke similar languages, interacting with them wouldn't help much,
either.

Yet, if you went up to someone and bluntly guessed "You're Mexican,
aren't you?" -- and it turned out that that someone was, in fact,
American -- you would (I think) likely get a clear "No, I'm American"
response.  And vice versa.

You can call this phenomenon what you like -- "identity", "pride in
ones nationality", or whatever -- but people do feel attached to their
origins.  Personally, I think attitudes like "I can't really be
bothered to distinguish between Norwegians and Swedes" are
disrespectful (in a small, but irritating way) of people's identity.


For the particular case of Swedes/Norwegians, the issue of identity
can be said to somewhat resemble that of competing brothers; way back
in the mists of time, we have the same (or at least very similiar)
origins, but over the centuries we've developed separate
personalities.  Hence, we get along nicely most of the time, but
whenever we get in a situation where (national) identity is a
substantial part of the setting (international sport events,
celebration of national holidays, and so on) we're likely to take
issue if misclassified as "the other one".

I think the same feeling of "These guys right on the other side of the
border are OK, but it feels *so* good whenever we get the better of
them" is prevalent in quite a few other parts of Europe (and, I guess,
other parts of the world), as well.

"Winning isn't important; it's all about beating the Swedes"-ly y'rs,
-- 
Harald