abaya

Thanks for responding... I thought I had killed the thread.
I agree with you in principle, but as an anthropologist, it's hard for me to say that everyone's personality is completely independent from the country and culture in which they were born. I know that despite having three national "identities" myself (and being married to a 4th), I am still dominantly "American" in my cultural programming. However, my point is that as we grow older, we have more control (whether or not most people choose to exercise it, is moot) over what exactly composes our identity. We don't HAVE to be identified with what passports we carry... hence the promise of a truly global identity and openness to other languages, other cultures.

For me, even though I know there are positive things about them, nationality and ethnicity are some of the most constraining and fear-inducing forms of identity that I can think of... but they are simultaneously essential for most humans' daily functioning and feelings of belonging. We all like to feel connected to something. The negative part is what happens when that "something" clashes up to something else that other people feel connected to, just as equally, and for just as arbitrary (as you point out) reasons... a flag, a language, a history, a sexuality... whatever it is. We get hostile because of our fear, whether physically or verbally (or legally, with whole nations acting in fear). And that is what I have a problem with.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran