English nationalism
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The construction of the English subject is inseparable from the destruction of the lives and humanity of racialized people.
Arguments of this kind take a dead-corpse view of national identity: that these things are too stewed in oppression and blood-letting to be of any use in creating a truly progressive society.
I'm unsure where I stand on this precisely. In one sense, I have no issue with people proclaiming to be English, to be proud of standing by the flag, of supporting their football team. Each of these three examples could be analysed independently, with different arguments being pulled together to argue against each one. Yet this behaviour does, in my experience, tend towards the creation of an 'other': something considered external to being English, and something which can inspire feelings of anger and hatred. I've seen the reaction of English people to meeting people (also considered English) who don't support the English football team. This reaction is surprise, followed by a bitter, seething resentment of the very idea that someone can live in England, but not support the team. I've seen same people sit in silence while racist insults are hurled before them. And so even on this seemingly harmless level, the very idea of patriotism can manifest into something sinister and (check footage of England fans performing Nazi salutes at the Euros) ugly.
This problem will always exist, to an extent. Creating a society with no localised attachments will probably result in a society which is extremely barbaric. The point surely, is to ensure that national identities are consciously porous - that they allow for people to peer into from without and outside of them from within.
One way to achieve this could simply be education, and inparticular, the education of Economics. In the recent referendum, both campaigns painted a canvas of lies and careless rhetoric, in the aim of persuading people that either YES or NO was better for Britain. There was no attempt to circle this with an understanding of how Britain's economic platform affects the rest of the world: how many of our consumer goods are built by people earning pitiful wages (wages which would be considered illegal in Europe), and how a system of global production like this means that people are always going to try to migrate from poorer nations to wealthier ones. An argument of this kind in public conversation wouldn't flip the world upside down. But it would broaden people's thinking on the matter and potentially steer policy-makers towards more global, inclusive solutions to problems which at first, are only considered within the bounds of a nation-state. It would also, perhaps more importantly, expose this kind of argument - we don't give a fuck about people in other countries, we only care about England - as unashamedly, nakedly fascist.
The construction of the English subject is inseparable from the destruction of the lives and humanity of racialized people.
Arguments of this kind take a dead-corpse view of national identity: that these things are too stewed in oppression and blood-letting to be of any use in creating a truly progressive society.
I'm unsure where I stand on this precisely. In one sense, I have no issue with people proclaiming to be English, to be proud of standing by the flag, of supporting their football team. Each of these three examples could be analysed independently, with different arguments being pulled together to argue against each one. Yet this behaviour does, in my experience, tend towards the creation of an 'other': something considered external to being English, and something which can inspire feelings of anger and hatred. I've seen the reaction of English people to meeting people (also considered English) who don't support the English football team. This reaction is surprise, followed by a bitter, seething resentment of the very idea that someone can live in England, but not support the team. I've seen same people sit in silence while racist insults are hurled before them. And so even on this seemingly harmless level, the very idea of patriotism can manifest into something sinister and (check footage of England fans performing Nazi salutes at the Euros) ugly.
This problem will always exist, to an extent. Creating a society with no localised attachments will probably result in a society which is extremely barbaric. The point surely, is to ensure that national identities are consciously porous - that they allow for people to peer into from without and outside of them from within.
One way to achieve this could simply be education, and inparticular, the education of Economics. In the recent referendum, both campaigns painted a canvas of lies and careless rhetoric, in the aim of persuading people that either YES or NO was better for Britain. There was no attempt to circle this with an understanding of how Britain's economic platform affects the rest of the world: how many of our consumer goods are built by people earning pitiful wages (wages which would be considered illegal in Europe), and how a system of global production like this means that people are always going to try to migrate from poorer nations to wealthier ones. An argument of this kind in public conversation wouldn't flip the world upside down. But it would broaden people's thinking on the matter and potentially steer policy-makers towards more global, inclusive solutions to problems which at first, are only considered within the bounds of a nation-state. It would also, perhaps more importantly, expose this kind of argument - we don't give a fuck about people in other countries, we only care about England - as unashamedly, nakedly fascist.
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