Re: CHAT: national identity
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, May 17, 1999, 14:52 |
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At 18:03 14/05/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>
>> In the Netherlands (and as far as I know in the rest of the European
>> Union),
>
>This is somewhat of an aside, but I've noticed that several of y'all seem
>to refer to yourselves as members of the European Union, rather than
>constituent members of your own countries. Does this reflect a general
>attitude at present in Europe that people there are more and more first
>Europeans, and then only later French or Dutch or Germans, much as most
>Americans, as opposed to 100 or 150 years ago, now consider themselves
>first Americans, and then only later members of a particular state?
>
Not at all. I think, at least in France, that the resistance against such
attitude has increased, instead of decrease (just think of the nationalist
movements that are more and more important). People say they are European
only when facing other continents (America or Asia mainly).
As for me, my attitude is not very conventional. I first see myself as a
citizen of the world, then as a European, then as a French, and finally as
a Norman. And even if I'm proud of my Norman and French roots, "citizen of
the world" always comes first (in fact, Normandy is just my main root. My
roots come also from Corsica, Belgium, Paris, and many other places in
Europe, as soon as we talk of my great-grandparents).
>=======================================================
>Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
>ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom
>Website: <
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
>"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
>
>Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and
>oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil
>spirits at the dawn of day. - Thomas Jefferson
>========================================================
>
>