That’s the definition. Should be easy enough then to
Well, my mother tongue is English. I’m by no stretch of the widest imagination bi-lingual, but regularly because of my 9 to 5 I do need to speak other languages.
Gestures, I do a strident Winston Churchill two-fingers and a passable Med shrug of the shoulders.
“Tools” which help me to survive- dunno (switching to low-brow) what tools are those like, the ability to (metaphorically) hold my tongue, for example?
“Customs” and “traditions” that “define my values and organise social interactions”...my values, socially pretty liberal, believer in the open society; economically, despite all present hoo-haa, moving more now towards libertarian free-market(amazing what a spell of self-employment does for you!); politically believing in the continuance of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-national United Kingdom. But what “customs” and “traditions” define those values? Millions living in the typical western liberal democracy will also be thinking along those lines, you don’t really have to be British to hold those views.
Moving onto "religious beliefs and rituals"- nope. None, whatsoever. I can sense the atmosphere/magic, call it what you will, of certain religious experiences, but I just can’t believe in the whole point behind those experiences. So, no religious beliefs there to make “symbolic or aesthetic expression”. And if you saw my typical clobber, you’d realise that the only symbolic, aesthetic statement being made there is “Slob, can’t be arsed”.
“art and music”, including, I guess, in the wider defintion of “art”, literature; my interests are all over the place- British folk music and history, world historical non-fiction, Central European history and folk traditions, football, anything whatsover to do with football, etc etc etc, the list goes on.
What’s my culture according to that breakdown, do I have a British, Irish, European cultural identity?
Exactly. I ain’t got “a culture”. I haven’t got a “cultural identity”.
I’ll prove it with a few more examples. My club football team is English, but its support has always been the most cosmopolitan in probably the world; my international team, which I’ve spent far too much money on travelling all over Europe to watch lose, has players and supporters which range from 100% British Loyalist, through distinctly Ulster nationalist, to proud Irish passport holders. My literary and musical heroes are a complete and utter mish-mash from the Isles and further afield. I enjoy a pint of Guinness, Theakstons, Jennings, Red Stripe and Staropramen. Polished off with a Bushmills or a Glenfiddich if I really, really must. It may sound a cliché, but my dream fastfood would be (wait for it), chips with curry sauce, kebab meat in a bap, with a side portion of mushy peas. Breakfast Ulster (English? Scottish? Irish? We’re One Nation Under a Pan) Fry; Sunday Dinner, Beef with Yorkshire Pud- there is no alternative. In the last year I’ve enjoyed the theatre, cinema, concerts. I will do opera if forced (and I am, usually at least once a year by Ms O’Neill- I married into highbrow), and actually, (on the quiet, obviously) I do enjoy the odd gallery and museum.
So, no specific cultural identity, how does that affect my national identity?
“Cultural nationalism” would argue that the nation (in my case the UK) is defined by a shared (inherited) culture.
Rubbish. My nation’s bigger and much better than that, consisting as it does of a myriad of interplaying, interacting and constantly changing peoples and cultural manifestations.
Nationalist culturalism, as expounded in the UK by the DUP, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the SDLP, Sinn Fein and yes, the BNP, on the other hand, would argue that such things as language, literature, music can be determined and valued solely, or at least largely, on the basis of their ethnic origin, location or *patriotic* topic matter.
Again, rubbish. A language is an apolitical, inanimate object; a novel is a collection of words; music is a collection of sounds and their worth is dictated by what is spoken, written or played, not by their topic or the origin of their author. In themselves, they don’t form a culture, national or otherwise. In themselves, they don’t support or threaten any political ideology. Irrespective of my political beliefs, my citizenship, the island from which I originate and my (lack of) religion I take the liberty to pick and choose what I enjoy to read, watch, listen to, eat and drink...and to put it in parochial Ulster context, that doesn’t make my British or Irish identity any less or more than the person beside me wearing a Rangers/Celtic shirt (*irony alert*).
It’s often argued that football and politics shouldn’t mix and when it does, it’s invariably the sport that ends up the loser. It’s exactly the same with literature, music, language, painting or any other form of artistic expression. Give such a work an increased value simply because of its origin or the nationalist message contained therein, then you’re missing the whole point of what literature, music, language, painting or other form of artistic expression is about. And by doing so, you may well end up, perversely, dissuading “outsiders” from tipping their toe in and ultimately ensuring the survival of “your” "own" version of culture.
10 comments:
Have a good festive season!
However on the subject of culture, could you mull over how the USA and Canada are two different countries but in many ways share the same culture i.e.:
- Enjoying the same sports (baseball, gridiron football)
- politics (more right-wing than Europe's - even the British Isles)
- Workers rights (only two weeks a years plus public holidays)
- Legal system (English Common law)
Both are multi-ethnic nations obviously.
For example:
What is the difference between a Canadian Chinese in Vancouver and his American-Chinese cousin San Francisco? Yet they carry different passports?
Etc
Obviously there is no such thing as a ethnic nationalism between the two countries but certainly cultural nationalism!
But maybe one day that might end. As Barbara Emeil (Lady Black of Federal Pen) once snarled at Canadians from one of her columns:
"A Canadian who wants to remain independent from the USA is like someone who wants to remain independent from their brain!"
Have a good one
This post could have been written by a communist.
What's your favourite Theakston's beer by the way? I went to the brewery a few years ago on a pub trip - Simon made us all very welcome indeed. I'll have a pint of Best Bitter if you're buying. Or a pint of whatever Whitewater on in cask over there.
Graycrow,
That's a first; I've never before been called a communist on here before...I'm going to set the dog on you;) (latest photographs are up on Picasso). The Bubachek excelled himself this year by managing to get us thrown out of our B&B by barking incessantly at our fellow guests, their only crime, apparently, was to be Austrian!
Anonymous,
In my younger days, I spent two happy years in Cumbria, hence my preference for Theakstons and Jennings. As a single pint or bottle, Theakston's Old Peculiar is hard to beat, as an all night drink, Best Bitter.
Aberdonian,
"Obviously there is no such thing as a ethnic nationalism between the two countries but certainly cultural nationalism!"
I don't think there is- how much of that culture is shared (and incidently shared with the rest of the world)? eg Is ice-hockey- US, Canadian, Russian, Scandanavian or anywhere where there is a real winter, culture?
The things you mention don't define the US or Canada as a nation, you could make a strong argument that in both places civic nationalism as opposed to the cultural variety is the glue which binds the nation together.
What is the difference between a Canadian Chinese in Vancouver and his American-Chinese cousin San Francisco?
Very little, but after one generation what is the cultural differnce between a Candian Chinese, an US-Chinese and a Western European Chinese- very little, but it's less the joint ethnicity which binds them together, rather the joint western *developed world* cultural background which connects. As a further proof, compare the life and social experience of a 2nd generation Chinese person in SF with that of one working in the counterfeit markets of Bosnia, Romania or Serbia- almost totally different, both are shaped more by their current environment than their shared ethnicity.
Anyway, as this is my last comment here for 2008, all the best for you and your family for 2009.
Looking forward to more debates in the New Year!
O'Neill: Do you drink cask in Northern Ireland? I understand the choice is very limited over there? I can't imagine sitting in a pub drinking the tasteless dreck that Guinness has now become (unless it's the 8% Special Export version of course).
I feel there is a kind of cultural nationalism: I feel most at home in countries like Malta, Denmark, the UK and (probably, though I've never been) Ireland. The people are eurosceptic and pretty much speak similar languages - though I have to admit becoming increasingly alienated from my own culture in the past five years.
P.S. O'Neill: Cumbria? It's a nice part of the country for sure. I'm on a bottle of Brodie's Prime stout from Hawkshead - lovely beer with a lovely brewery centre too!
I have always been flabbergasted by Republican attempts to affix the Irish language to their own political agenda. I grew up in Dunfanaghy, in west Donegal where my family used Irish exclusively as our daily means of communication. We never had any Republican political views, nor had many of those around us, so it somewhat surprised me when I heard of SF appropriating my native tongue for their own political purposes. I wonder what they would make of the Protestant enclave of Horn Head peninsula where the Protestant farmers who once signed the Ulster Solemn League Covenant with their own very blood are not infrequently heard conversing as Gaeilge in the local pubs. That's not to say however that political expression and cultural merit are necessarily mutually exclusive. Some of the greatest works of poetry and art simply wouldn't make sense without an appreciation, or at least a sympathetic understanding, of its political grounding. Jonathon Swift's A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public was roundly applauded by the Ascendancy, even among his most ardent political opponents. Similarly it was once customary for an Orange Lodge in Belfast, whose name currently escapes me, to make their brethren acquainted with Bímse Buan ar Buairt gach Ló and the Jacobean laments of the filí.
The Irish language revival movement was originally associated with Protestant scholars from the Anglo-Irish ascendancy. I should think that William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, Douglas Hyde, George Butler Russell, Edward Martyn, Lord Dunsany among others would regard with indignant contempt the misuse of the language by political extremists. Before its infiltration by Republicans, Hyde's Conradh na Gaeilge had thousands of branches throughout Ulster, including Belfast, which many Anglicans and Presbyterians attended. Hyde hoped to use the Irish language movement as an apolitical means of cultural enrichment for both unionists and nationalists (himself from a unionist family) and gave up his role as president when the Irish Republican Brotherhood infiltrated the movement.
Do you drink cask in Northern Ireland? I understand the choice is very limited over there?
Anonymous,
It's very difficult. Unfortunately the pubs in Belfast that do serve cask are not really my favourites for non-beer reasons.
Réalt na Maidne:
That's not to say however that political expression and cultural merit are necessarily mutually exclusive. Some of the greatest works of poetry and art simply wouldn't make sense without an appreciation, or at least a sympathetic understanding, of its political grounding.
Certainly for your first statement; but my argument would be that the cultural merit is not dependent on the particular political expression. I can (and do enjoy) enjoy Brendan Behan’s work without sharing the Republicanism behind it. Although, yes, you do need to at least have some background knowledge of the political context.
Thanks for your history of the Irish language movement, the whole Irish language situation is something I plan to expand on in the new year.
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