Discussions

Living in the UK has allowed Grace and I to have discussions with non-Americans. Here are some highlights from the week:

1. National Pride

According to our friends, only the really posh and the working class fly the British flag. For our friends, the flag was mostly associated with soccer hooligans. National pride is just not something that seems to exist. They were bewildered by this idea of being "proud" to be an American. "Why would you be proud of where you happened to be born?" was the general theme. They thought the Americans who loved to assert that their country was the greatest nation on Earth seemed unable to realize that they probably had nothing personal to do with that. "It seems like it's almost like a meta-faith in the consititution, and the ideas of America or something," one said.

Personally, I think we might have different ideas about what it means to be part of a nation because A) America is relatively isolated from other countries compared to EU countries, and B) we have an idea of what it means to be "American" that doesn't depend on ancestral identity (the way being "British," "French," or "German" might have), and so we've kept that identity strongly in the wake of massive immigration and globalization.

But hey, I'm no sociologist and I'm welcome to other suggestions.

2. Sweden

Is Sweden actually the greatest nation on Earth? Consider the facts:

A) One of our friends said it was and
B) Instead of having an army, they give everyone in the country a gun and make them report for two week training duty annually. The idea is that if they're ever invaded, the entire country will shift into a guerrilla warfare mode. Sort of a militia where the entire population is trained and armed. Apparently they have bunkers up in the hills and mountains and if they get invaded, they'll sneak out and take up positions there. Pretty much the greatest idea ever I think.

3. Turks

This one guy at lunch is racist against the people of Turkey, which is just really wierd. My favorite anecdote (paraphrased):

Turk-hater: "One time me and my friend perfored a citizen's arrest. There was this person who snuck into college and pretended to be a student. We saw him carrying two laptops, so my friend asked him why he hadn't seen him around, and what he was doing there. The man took off running, so we chased him and placed him under arrest until the police came. And you know what, he was a turk."
Other guy: "Oh my, did he survive the arrest?"
Turk-hater: "Yes, but my friend broke his arm in the struggle to arrest him."

Also, where he's from, they have an old saying (no joke):

"The only good turk, is a dead turk."

Can you believe cliches like this are still used un-ironically?